You think He'd have learned
by IIPLUSLEII
Summary: His Future-Self is a prick, Jared isn't much better, their strange interrogator is even worse. His beloved SuperJail is in ruin and the threat of another attack is soon to become reality. I revised the chapters, grammatical errors and authornotes begone!
1. Chapter 1

The bombs were dropping even more rapidly now. Buildings, cars, and homes were disappearing into explosions right and left. Smoke waved over the area choking everyone unfortunate enough to be left alive. Those who were could be found shouting and running or hunched over the remains of their loved ones. Screams filled the air, only to be drowned out by the roar of more explosions.

Then the gunfire started. Soon streams of bullets littered the area, aimed at the vicious robots. Tall, menacing, mocking even, painted in a deep purple with yellow 'eyes' to match the likeliness of that monster. They turned over the massive amounts of rubble they had just created as they strode through the panicked streets. Some pulled the battered citizens away from their families. Others picked off the few rebels here and there that were trying to physically take them down.

The entire city was in a state of chaos. The mayhem and destruction only lasted a few moments, his forces were finished almost as quick as they had begun.

She tried to block out everything, she couldn't. She couldn't block out the screams. The cells that surrounded her own were packed with whimpering, moaning, broken people. She couldn't see anyone she recognized. As if it mattered anyway. She knew this was her end, it was only a matter of waiting for her to meet it now.

Shoved, kicked, and crowded aside she felt like a marble trapped in a bag with other confused, screaming, panicking marbles. She didn't like it, and no matter how she protested she was still being squashed with all her other cellmates.

Suddenly the outside door opened and another sea of whimpers were heard; only for a few seconds however. It was as if instinct commanded the captives to do so, the cells became hurriedly quiet. The only thing to be heard were the occasional explosion outside, and the hard tapping of steel-toed boots on the concrete floor.

Two shadows appeared in the stream of light the outside door created. One tall and slender, the other shorter and wider.

"Zhere are _many_, many people to choose from, Varden. Take your pick if you like." The thick German accent echoed through the hushed walkway.

"So long as they can give us something to use, Doctor, then I couldn't care less who we torture." The second, nonchalant voice came, filled with an irritated tone.

"Ja, ja I get it. So zhen pick anozher v'one so I can begin my testink."

The tapping halted. Everyone in their cells backed against the wall. They all seemed to curl into one another, trying to find a way to hide. It was like this every week. The two men would pay them a visit, taking one or two nameless victims with them. Rinse, repeat. This became the norm after the few weeks she found herself trapped.

Though, while everyone behind her crowded themselves together like the others in the cells around them had, she did not. She didn't know if she had gone insane or what, she knew to 'survive' that blending in with the other bodies was vital, but her body wouldn't comply with the hushed commands to "get her ass over here."

She had to be crazy to willingly grip the iron bars of her cell, she had to be completely mad to slump herself against the door. She figured to hell with sanity, or life itself if it meant she could spend a few moments not feeling like canned sardine. She pressed her cheek against the cool bars. She thought of it as her last bit of pleasure in the world.

"Ahh, so rare we find ourselves a _volunteer!_ Oh splendid! My how I love looking at the excited faces of our _candidates!_"

Meanwhile, in an earlier time, a young man dressed in a lively purple suit, with yellow-tinted glasses began to pace inside his colorful office. He was awfully anxious about something, as he muttered under his breath.

"Ugh! Jared! Where are you?" The Warden called. He released the button on the intercom and began tapping his foot rapidly. A few more seconds passed by before he firmly pressed his again, putting all of his strength into this one little button. "JARED!"

"Y-yes s-sir...?" Came the stuttered, static voice from the speaker of the intercom. "I-I'm almost there I h-had trouble finding the last part."

"Well hurry, would you? I wanted this machine up and running ten minutes ago!"

"Y-yes sir, on my way sir."

The door to the Warden's office suddenly burst open. Papers, schematics and blueprints flew and tumbled around the room. A short man with an incredibly large forehead made his usual ungraceful entrance. The Warden snatched a piece of paper out of the air and examined it closely. His eyes lit up behind his yellow-tinted glasses.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting to test this baby out?"

"No sir, how long?" Jared asked, clumsily gathering the spew of papers into a messy pile.

"Well...hmm..." The Warden paused for a moment, tapping his chin. "How long has it been since that whole...Time-Police incident?" He wrinkled his nose and waved his hand.

"Uhh..." A few papers flew out of the pile as they were placed on the Warden's desk.

"Yeah about that long."

"Sir, I really don't think this is a good idea I mean-"

"Oh Jared, silly, always-worrying-without-a-reason-Jared." The Warden pointed to the schematic he was holding. "Look at this, does this look like something that would cause a rip in the fabric of space, time and reality itself?"

"Well, to be honest sir, yes."

"Good!" The Warden flung the paper into the air excitedly. "It'd be a pretty poor time-machine indeed if it didn't."

Jared sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Whatever you say sir."

"You do have all the parts to it, right?"

"Y-yes sir, here's the last part right here." Jared pulled out of his pocket what looked like a spark-plug of some sort. He handed it to the Warden who hastily snatched it from his hands.

"Terrific! To the Time-Machine room!" The Warden sprinted out the door and down the hall, Jared chasing after him.

Jared skidded into the Warden's leg when he made an abrupt stop. A part of the wall slid open to reveal a room with mechanical arms with drill-bits, scattered chunks of metal surrounding a violet pod-like device donning a purple top hat and two yellow oval-shaped windshields. The door to enter this device would look like a gap in a toothy smile were it open.

"Why hello there." The Warden cooed, rubbing his cheek against one of the windows. "You and I are going to have quite the time getting to know each other, aren't we?"

Jared rolled his eyes, handing him what seemed to be the instructions to the time-machine.

The Warden retrieved the little spark-plug and walked around the back of the pod, placing it in it's own little slot.

Quite a few years later, inside a darkened room, much like that of a modern torture-chamber; the Doctor was beginning to finish his 'testing'.

She was beginning to regret 'volunteering' herself for this very quickly. Sweat stung her eyes, her hands and feet felt numb from the loss of blood. She was wondering how she had any left to taste it in her mouth. Her throat felt as if it were on fire... The more she moved the more the pain ran through her body, unforgiving. She didn't know what exactly they were trying to accomplish by bleeding her to death, and to be honest she couldn't hold a proper thought long enough to come up with a valid reason. Why did her head have to feel so hot?

Suddenly the lights shut off and the whirr of the machines died down. The other subject lolled his head to the side and became motionless. He was in a similar state as she.

"N-No wait, wait! I-I can be of better use I swear!" She called into the darkness. She looked to her right seeing the other victim slumped in an unconscious state through the blackness. At least as far as she could tell it was him. She gulped harshly before screaming again.

"I know you can hear me! Just let me prove it to you! I..." She panted, she was so tired and her limbs felt so heavy. She was going to lose her voice soon if someone didn't respond to her cries.

She heard the tiniest flick of a switch, then the light pinging sound of a monitor being turned on.

_ "What an irritating howl you have for a scream. I must admit it is always quite interesting to measure how long it takes for you pitiful insurgents to go from begging to bargaining."_ The voice of the Warden, or in this case the Future-Warden, rang through the test-chamber.

_ "If you promise keep the shrieking to a minimum, then you have exactly twenty seconds to prove this...whatever."_

"This man, next to me...He h-has some vital information to you, yes?"

_ "Yes."_

"But you've been unable to get at it, right?"

_ "Are __you_ _saying _you_ can?"_

"What if I told you I could?"

There was a pause. She swallowed hard to keep her heart from jumping into her throat.

_ "Then, _Howl _I say you have thirteen seconds left."_

Back inside the younger Warden's time-machine room, the final preparations were being made for his frivolous adventure.

"Comfy seats? Check. Cup-holders? Check. Plugged in? Oh goodness yes, check." The Warden situated himself in the 'driver's seat' of his creation. His fingers wiggled happily over the row of buttons that littered the dashboard.

"Sir are you absolutely sure about this?" Jared cautioned him, as he often did. He slowly shut the door to the contraption and carefully took a step back. The Warden was occupied with pressing a few buttons here and there, setting a date of destination and doing another overall check of everything from the inside.

"Honestly Jared it's almost as if you don't want me to have _any_ fun at all." The Warden scoffed, pressing a rather large blinking red button.

The pod activated. Flashing lights of varied colors and sirens soon filled the room, the pod began shaking violently. Jared took cover under a table he had pushed back into the far corner. The lights grew brighter and brighter, the Warden's smile growing wider with them. He bounced up and down giddily, moving in time with the rapid seizures of his machine.

In a burst of white light and what sounded like a clash of thunder, all at once pod and the Warden disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

His machine worked. At least as far as he could tell it had. A cloud of dust blinded his view momentarily, but it soon dissipated. He was so overcome with excitement that he hadn't begun to notice the poor state the room which he arrived in was. Everything that was shiny and new just a few moments ago was now rusted, chipped or broken. A few lights flickered on and off here and there, but still the Warden strode out of his machine, smiling wildly, if obliviously at his success.

"Ooh how I do love when things go my way." He chimed, poking the dusty floor with his cane.

He paused for a moment, eying the floor. He seemed to take notice of the disarray around him. Frowning, he began to tap his foot.

"I expected Jared to be here to greet me," He said, flicking some debris off his shoulder "Or at least tidy up a bit." He tapped his cane louder, as if he hoped the future-Jared would sense his irritability and come rushing to him.

A few more seconds of waiting proved that no one was coming.

"Honestly," the Warden huffed. "I have to do everything around here."

He poked his head out of the doorway and headed to his office. He wondered why Jailbot wasn't around. Or...anyone else for that matter.

"Where is everyone?" he said to himself, looking around a few corners as he passed them.

"JARED!" He called, now more annoyed than ever. He opened the door to his office, shaking his head, swearing under his breath after not receiving a response.

"You'd think they've forgotten who was bo-" He stopped suddenly.

There were two men in dark uniforms standing at his desk. They were going over what looked to be maps or other papers of some sort.

"Who the hell are you?"

The two men, startled, looked up. Both quickly jumped back and stood to attention, saluting the Warden.

"S-sir we were just going over the maps of the rebel camps we've found so far sir." the taller of the two stuttered.

The Warden raised a brow, slightly confused. "Rebel camps?"

"Yes sir," the shorter one replied, nodding frantically. The two men looked at each other then back to the Warden before the taller one spoke again.

"Um, sir?"

The Warden was busy looking around his once colorful office. He was certain he was in the right place. He spun around examining the dull plum-colored carpet. A black desk had replaced his wooden one. The wallpaper had changed from the vibrant array of colors to boring grays with purple accents.

He was not happy with his current surroundings and he was hellbent on making whoever was responsible for these changes pay the price for their obvious lack of taste.

"Uh...sir?"

The Warden brought himself out of his daze. "Hmm?"

"Sir, shouldn't you be on the plane?"

"Plane?"

"Yes sir," The shorter one saluted again. "You are meant to board for SuperBase."

The Warden's eyes darted across the room. A sinking feeling started to grow in the pit of his stomach. He had a feeling he should just turn around, go back to his machine and call this experiment a success. However, he found himself being hurried out the door and down the hallway.

It might have been the overwhelming sense of curiosity he had been cursed with, or the fact that he almost always ignored his gut feelings, he wanted to see what awaited him at this 'SuperBase'.

Perhaps he could get a few answers from future-Jared, if he could ever find him, as to why his lovely SuperJail has been attacked by bad decor.

After a few minutes of walking down what seemed to him like an endless hallway, he found it odd that there was a sufficient lack of inmates. He was sure he'd always see one or two...sweeping something or stabbing someone here and there. He shrugged and headed outside. An aircraft painted in the similar plum color he saw earlier was parked just outside. With propellers whirring, it looked like it was ready for take-off any second. The Warden wrinkled his nose at the blatant plainness of everything. This wasn't at all how he imagined his future to look; so bland and tasteless.

'_Where's the fun? Who is designing these awful things?'_

No matter, he just wanted to see what was at this 'SuperBase' and get back to his time-machine before the day was out.

At least on board the airship was much more to his liking. A large, yellow poofy couch sat alongside the wall. Slightly less boring grays and purples with tiny yellow accents decorated the inside.

The Warden fluffed out his coattails as he sat down.

"Yeah, can I get a drink?" He snapped his fingers a few times. A gruff-looking soldier-type nodded his head and went off to fetch him something.

The Warden laced his fingers behind his head and propped his feet up. He closed his eyes as he began to relax. Well, he would have relaxed even more if he had his drink like he ordered. He snapped his fingers once more, emphasizing how annoyed he was with everyone's laziness.

The sound that replied to him however was not that of ice clattering in a glass. It was the sound of guns being loaded.

Opening one eye he found a row of soldiers aiming their machine guns at his chest.

His first reaction was to yelp like the little girl he felt like just then, but a flash of anger overcame him in the same moment.

"Uh, _excuse me_, you do know that _I'm_ the Warden right?" He gingerly pushed aside the nose of the nearest gun.

"Oh really?" A harsh voice said suddenly. The sound of steel-toed boots followed, tapping loudly on the floor. A tall man stood before the Warden, wearing a black uniform, plum cape and spiked helmet. His skin was lightly tanned and his glasses were an amber color. The gaped-toothed grin he wore was more menacing than his voice conveyed.

With his hands on his hips the man leaned forward. "Then _who_ the hell _am I_?"


	3. Chapter 3

The Warden gulped, his eyes flew from the soldiers to his future-self rapidly.

Wait, why was he afraid? This was himself he was dealing with, surely this handsome chap would understand what's going on, right?

"You're me of course." The Warden replied smoothly. With his gloved hand he shined his nails on his chest. He leaned back in his seat and nodded once.

"No, _I _am me." The other Warden's face morphed into a scowl. He looked to his left for a moment. This time it was him who snapped his fingers.

"You there," He commanded the nearest soldier. "Get this obvious imposter out of my airship and dispose of him."

The Warden chuckled, "Heh, good one. I always knew I had a charming sense of humor."

The soldier cocked his gun and inched closer to him. The color fled from the Warden's face. He began to feel a panic coming on.

"N-no wait! It's true you really _are_ me!" He protested, waving his arms in the air.

The other Warden scoffed. "Shows how stupid these rebels really are... sending in this joke with a suit like that. Just shoot him already so we can take off."

_'Suit like this?'_ The nerve of him!

"What do you mean? No! Get your hands off of me!" He kicked and flailed his arms at the men who grabbed him. He was soon being dragged onto the ramp of the airship, still kicking away at anything within reach.

"Now would be an _excellent_ time for you to show up Jared!" the Warden bellowed as two men tossed him into the ground. They wasted no time in aiming their guns at him again.

"If you want a few extra seconds to live," The other Warden called from the aircraft, "Then I suggest you start running."

The Warden brushed himself off and was about to protest, but found that staring down the barrel of a machine gun was just the motivation he needed to sprint as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

A stream of bullets fired in his direction. He covered his head and winced as he ran. He headed for the door of SuperJail, pressing the buttons that opened it hastily. Every combination of button he pressed resulted in a buzzer sound. The bullets were still raining down on him. He slammed his shoulder in the door, demanding that it open. The steel frame wouldn't budge to his force. The bullets barely dented it, though now he could feel them getting closer to him.

"I'm the Warden! Let me in dammit!" He continued to pound on the door. He looked behind him, the soldiers were quickly closing in. The aircraft was now taking off, hovering a few feet above the ground. The other Warden watched as his impersonator was being put to death.

The Warden shrilled a piercing scream, instantly holding his arm tightly. He'd been hit just above his elbow. He sunk back against the door and slid down to the ground, watching as the soldiers crept closer. It felt as though a thousand needles were exploding with surging tremors in that one tiny area where a fresh hole appeared. Gripping onto his fresh wound didn't help ease the tremendous pain, but it was the only thing his instinct told him to do.

The other Warden felt a oddly sharp and persistent pain inside him suddenly. He gripped the source of the pain and winced harder. He felt like he'd been shot. Another revolting spark of pain burst through him, this time from his left leg. He looked outside to find the imposter hunched over, clutching his leg screaming even louder.

"You're shitting me..." The other Warden cursed through gritted teeth.

The rain of bullets stopped. Were they out of ammo? Perhaps they were just going to leave him for dead. He let go of his leg to examine his blood-stained glove. He swallowed hard looking at his arm. Seeing the blood seep out of the hole just made his body hurt even more. The aircraft was slowly settling back down again, stirring up a lot of dust that choked the immobilized Warden. Coughing only made his blood sputter out faster.

The other Warden stomped out of the aircraft, not even bothering to let the ramp fully unfold. He shoved the soldiers aside as he reached them and kicked the suffering Warden in the back. He soon regretted doing this as he felt the pang of new injury in the same place.

"Get up!" He snapped, reaching for the collar of the Warden's coat. He pulled him up and held him, dangling in front of his face. "Who are you?" He shouted, causing the half-dazed Warden to wince again.

"I-I told you..." He began weakly. "I'm the Warden..."

"How can you be the Warden, when I'm the Warden?" The other Warden shouted again shaking him by his collar. He tried putting weight on his leg to keep himself from tossing around too much only to realize that that was an incredibly bad idea.

"Answer me!"

The Warden gripped a hold of his captor, finding a bit of balance on his unharmed leg. "I built a time-machine asshole!" he hissed, glaring at him.

The other Warden stopped shaking his counterpart. His eyes grew wide with the realization of what was going on.

"You mean you actually used it? You idiot!" The other Warden dropped him and tossed his hands in the air in disgust. He held his face in his palm, shaking his head. "You need to get back to your own time, _right now_."

"Believe me," the Warden spat as he struggled to get up. His left leg was shaking uncontrollably and he found it hard to stifle that and pull himself up with only one arm. He leaned against the steel door and used it as a brace to steady himself. "I was just thinking the same thing." He put his weight into holding onto the keypad of the door, since his cane was nowhere to be found. "Since when did I turn into such a dick?"

"Since you-" A rapid beeping noise was coming from one of the 'medals' on the other Warden's uniform. He grimaced, pressing it. "WHAT?"

A few seconds of silence between the Warden and the other Warden filled the air. The other's eyes widened and a look of horror struck him. He looked above him, then spun around and looked frantically from side to side.

"Are you positive?"

A pause from the other as he waited for whoever was contacting him to respond.

"_Dammit!_"

A simple, confused "huh" was all that came from the Warden before he was again being dragged. This time, back towards the aircraft.

The other pressed another 'medal' on his chest. "They're attacking from above. All forces get to your stations. Gunships need to be in the air now!"

"W-what?" The Warden whimpered as he was yet again tossed onto a hard surface. His wounded limbs screamed as he made his clumsy landing. He clenched his fist and slammed it onto the floor, cursing again.

"Someone get him hooked up to an I.V or something! Whatever you do don't let him die!"

A quick shudder rocked the airship as the propellers kicked into high gear. Soon they were high off the ground, the view of SuperJail below them. Far off into the horizon, shining, metallic-like specks dotted the sky. They grew larger the closer in view they got. Soon a shower of bombs and other sorts ammunition were fired into the towers and walls that protruded from the base. A fleet of gunships rose from beyond one of the walls to help combat the attacking rebels.

The airship disappeared into a sea of clouds, heading out at full-speed.

The Warden was lifted onto a stretcher and moved under a bright, blinding light. He started to feel numb in the tips of his fingers and toes. The heat of the light was none too comforting at all either. He felt tiny pricks on his other, bullet-free arm and soon the dull force of something being injected into him. He groaned, trying to pull out whatever it was they stuck into him, but his attempts failed as his arms were strapped to the rails of the stretcher.

In the seconds that followed, he began to feel very groggy, he noticed the pain was beginning to subside. He laid his head back, wishing he had a pillow or something. His eyes seemed to close against his will as he felt himself forced into a sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

"He's not in any shape for me to go in right now." A stern female voice said.

"I know that," The other Warden replied, obviously irritated. "But he _will_ be later, right?"

The Warden could hear only fragments of the conversation going on above him. That awful grogginess still consumed him. His entire body felt numb. He was just conscious enough to attempt to move his arms and legs. It was useless though, they didn't feel like they belonged to him. Nothing right now felt like they belonged to him.

"When can he be moved?" The other Warden asked.

"In the morning I think. His bleeding's stopped but he might go into shock if we move him this second."

"It's not like he lost a leg! It's just a little bullet wound!"

"Two, actually." The female retorted. "And if this guy really is the real thing, then you of all people should know how much of a wimp he is." The tone of her voice suggested that she was grinning slyly as she spoke.

There was a moment of silence before the female spoke again.

"Alright fine! Move him if you want to, but I can't do anything with him until he recovers!"

"Why are you so _useless_!"

The voices started to fade and the Warden was out cold once more.

The passage of time might has well have been instantaneous to him. He didn't know how long he'd been out this time. He sprang out of bed in a worried rush. He took a moment to clutch his head, waiting for the sudden flow of blood to subside. Groaning, he looked around his new environment.

Well, at least it looked a _little_ like his bedroom. Still on the dull and boring side. The bold colors he was used to, and preferred were just a few shades darker, annoyingly so, than how he remembered them. A salmon-colored carpet, mustard-colored curtains and that awful plum color everywhere else.

He tossed the covers off himself and found that he'd been stripped of his suit, now in a pair of pajamas similar in design to that of the other Warden's uniform. The medals and patches had been printed on the silk fabric.

Swinging his legs around the side of the bed, he'd forgotten about his most recent injuries. Putting weight on his arm and leg quickly reminded him. It wasn't a terrible pain, he could still walk. He was just very cautious as he did.

Suddenly the door slid open. A young woman, dressed in a royal-blue vest, deep red undershirt, and sleek pants to match slowly walked into his room. Her light-brown hair was tied into messy bun. A pair of copper-colored half-moon spectacles rested on the end of her nose. She looked around the room for a moment before putting on a smile.

Behind the cheerful mood she carried as she looked for a place to set the platter with a tall pitcher of water and a few glasses, it was easily noticeable that she looked exhausted.

"Let me guess..." She started, rubbing her chin for a moment, grinning "You're the _other_ Warden, right?"

He stiffened up. He nodded sharply, but not without a scowl. He wasn't too fond of being referred to as the 'other'.

"You must be thirsty," She said, putting the platter down on a nearby table.

"Uh, no thanks."

"You don't think it's been tampered with, do you?" She gasped, cocking an eyebrow adding a smirk.

"You know, I wouldn't put it past myself."

She chuckled a little. "How are you feeling?"

The Warden didn't answer, he just stared at her, backing against the wall.

She reached for the pitcher, pouring herself a glass. She held it up in a sort of cheer and knocked the water back in a few gulps.

"Pledge of good faith." She nodded, setting the glass down.

The Warden eyed the pitcher for a moment. He took slow steps toward the table and gingerly poured himself a glass. He took a few sips here and there, not quite believing that he wasn't being poisoned.

"And...you are?"

"Well, on paper it looks like I'm your nanny."

"I meant your name."

She looked him over for a moment, a certain coldness appeared in her expression.

"He's seen it fitting, for _some_ reason to change my name to '_Howl_', but, my name is Penna." She finished with a light disgust. However, it didn't last long as she quickly returned to the more chipper mood she had when she walked in.

"Alright then..." He didn't know which was the right name to call her by, neither seemed to make her happy. He decided to go with the safest-sounding one.

"Penna. Why are you here?" The Warden finished his last sip of water, not watching where he was setting his empty glass. He hit the edge of the table, glass slipping from his hand, creating an awkward clatter. He quickly regained whatever composure he could muster, which after the time he was having wasn't much.

Penna's eyes wandered to his empty glass and suddenly, a smirk spread across her face. A slight glance to the Warden before she hastily grabbed her throat and made hoarse, gagging sounds.

Doubled over, she pounded on her chest, continuously retching.

The Warden jumped back, startled half out of his wits. His eyes flew from the glasses to the choking lady rolling on the floor. He grabbed his own throat instinctively. He didn't feel as ill as she looked, but the sinking in the pit of his stomach soon changed that.

"I-I knew it!" He frantically sprinted around the room, running from corner to corner as if finding a way out would help him escape his death. He was so busy banging on windows and doors, calling for help that he hadn't noticed Penna had stopped coughing, or indeed was standing, staring at him with a look that seemed to say, _'Are you done now?'_

"Would you relax?" She called, bringing the Warden out of his panic. "You'll tear your stitches."

The Warden stopped suddenly to clear his throat, not at all amused by this petty trick. "Relax? Of course I can relax! If I were any more _relaxed_ I'd be _dead!_" He tossed his hands in the air then with one hand pinched the bridge of his nose to stifle an oncoming headache. "At any rate, you didn't answer my question."

"Well aside from... part-time baby-sitting services," She said looking the Warden up and down, "I'm head of Interrogations." Penna nodded with a slight bow.

"Ha! You? And Interrogator with a sense of humor?" He wasn't buying it. Or, at least he didn't want to buy it.

'_Why have they sent an Interrogator to my room? I'm about to be tortured, aren't I?'_

Penna rolled her eyes, taking a seat on the sofa. "It's the only way I think I'd be able to keep myself sane. Trust me, in this place, your sanity is usually the first thing to go."

"So, why aren't you...you know...Interrogating?" He replied, inching along the wall to the other side of the room. Perhaps he hoped to somehow blend in with his surroundings.

"You haven't captured anyone for me to interrogate yet." She crossed her legs and began bouncing her foot. One would consider her actions to be out of nervousness and in truth she was, a little.

"I'd think that Alice would be in charge of something like that."

"Well, her..._tactics_ are for when I cannot break the captive's mental barrier. It usually doesn't go that far though." The bouncing of her foot started to increase.

"No offense," He started, using his hands for emphasis, "But you don't seem that intimidating for someone who..." The Warden paused for a moment to let out a sudden yawn. "...Questions rebel forces."

Penna smiled a little. "The victims are first put to sleep, after that is when I come in."

"What do you mean? Is it some sort of subconscious...extraction...thing?" It sounded like something he'd have the Doctor work on.

"Eh, not exactly, but you're thinking though and that's good." She nodded, adding to the false praise.

"Well then, what is..." Another yawn. "...It?" The Warden shook his head. He felt very tired all of a sudden. In his mind he justified that all the grand things that happened to him would tucker anyone else out as it had him. Still, he had to stay alert.

Penna looked up at the ceiling, sinking in her chair a little. She didn't really want to answer his question, but he did have a right to know what he was dealing with now. The sense of awkwardness began to outweigh the silence in the room. She cleared her throat a little before she spoke again.

"I go inside their mind, take out the vital memories, such as camp locations, plans of attack, images of their higher-ups or anything else that might be useful to yo-" She paused, looking him over once more. She couldn't lump the two of them together, she decided. They weren't the same person. Well...they _were_ but this one was definitely different. "Him."

The Warden blinked, utterly confused. "Ho-"

"I'm just one of the _lucky_ ones I suppose." Another statement filled with distaste.

"Then," She continued. "When I find everything I can...I wipe their memories and give them new ones. Fabricate their past. The idea is to make the enemy think they were on our side from the very beginning. Only..."

"What? Only what?" He was now sitting on the sill of a window, looking as though if the plated, bullet-proof, foot-thick glass wasn't holding him back, he'd jump.

"Only most of the captives die or go completely mad before I get a chance to give them their new past. I'm... still sort of learning."

"I'm not understanding how this works. Is there a machine involved? Do you swing a watch or what?" The Warden shook his head again to keep himself alert. His fatigue was beginning to get to him more and more. Why was he so tired? He just woke up.

"I told you, I'm just one of the...lucky ones." Penna said, looking away for a moment.

"Ha! What's it? Some kind of _magic_?" His words and gestures showed a sense of bravery that suggested the opposite of what he was trying to convey. He sounded more nervous the more he was forced to sit in this woman's company.

"Ooh, you're not a witch are you?" His forced grin began to droop as his eyes grew heavier.

Penna obliged his facade with a chuckle of her own. "He's called me that before, but I'm not in the sense that you're thinking." She nodded in his direction, smirking.

The Warden felt his head tilt forward. He jerked it back up with a start. His exhaustion was getting the better of him. No, he had to stay awake while she was here. For all he knew she could be some well-dressed psycho come to kill him. He glanced at the water pitcher once more. That little stunt she pulled had put his mind at ease on whether or not his future-self was trying to poison him. Only just a bit, however.

"So you're feeling alright then?"

"If you're here to take care of me, then find my suit." The Warden said, brushing his shoulder off before yawing again.

"It's being tailored. We figured you'd want it back without the holes in it."

"Well in that case I'm feeling pretty sh-" So much for staying alert. The Warden collapsed on the floor. The curtains floating over him from the resulting rush of wind. In the few seconds that followed, he began to snore.

Penna scoffed, shaking her head before carefully tip-toeing to him. She hovered over him for a moment, making sure he was indeed asleep. She gently grabbed him by his shoulders and sat him up, leaning his head against the wall for balance. Out of her vest pocket she pulled out a tiny notebook and pen.

"For both our sakes let's hope this works, alright?" She whispered as she clicked her pen.


	5. Chapter 5

Strangely familiar images zoomed past his view as the Warden drifted deeper into his sleep. He felt as though he was being pulled by some force down a never-ending hallway.

On both sides of him were large, incredibly tall and elegantly framed 'pictures', the same strange yet familiar scenes he knew he'd seen before. Scenes of him enjoying a typical day in SuperJail, scenes of him pursuing, and getting declined by Alice. Jared was in a few of them as well, in his usual nervous manner. He could have sworn he'd just seen himself as a baby.

The force tugged on him faster, the frames speeding past. He didn't know how he could feel motion-sickness in a dream, since it was obvious that's what he was in, but at any moment he expected to blow chunks everywhere.

A few more dozen of the 'pictures' rushed past him until the force that pulled him began to loosen it's grip. As he came to a halt, The Warden found himself standing in front of a frame that held an image of what looked like the door to the Time-Machine room.

He glanced over his shoulder and to his side, wondering if anyone else was around. The atmosphere of this place gave him the feeling that he was the only person in this dream.

The Warden pressed a few buttons on the keypad, only half expecting the door to actually open. To his surprise, it opened instantly.

He carefully tip-toed into the room, peeking around the corner. He felt a wave of relief and excitement overcome him as he spotted his time-machine.

_"Do you know how long I've been waiting to test this baby out?"_

The Warden, wide-eyed, jumped back against the wall, his heart pounding. He just caught himself getting ready to make the biggest mistake of his life.

_ "No sir, how long?" _This Jared responded exactly as he had before.

_ "Well...hmm..." _The Warden's doppelganger paused for a moment, playing out his part of this all-too-familiar scene.

_"How long has it been since that whole...Time-Police incident?"_

The Warden panted slightly. He didn't know what to do. Was he just supposed to watch himself go through this whole ordeal again? Why should he? This was his dream, he could do whatever he wanted to right?

He gulped once, twice.

"Wait! Stop!" He shouted, waving his arms around. "Whatever you're thinking, stop!"

The Dream-Jared and Dream-Warden didn't seem to notice him as he caused a ruckus. The two continued playing out the scene.

"This is a _really bad_ idea! You've got to believe-" The invisible force had gripped a hold of him again, pulling him backwards out of the Time-Machine room. The Warden yelped, watching more and more of the images fly by him.

This time, whatever had a grip on him wasn't so gentle. He tumbled over himself as he was let go abruptly. After brushing his shoulders off he looked behind himself. The view before him was that of the plum aircraft and the two soldiers that crept closer to his terrified Dream-self, pelting the poor fellow with bullets.

The Warden winced and clutched his arm. "Oh God, not again."

It was almost as if on cue, everything began to disintegrate around him, like sand being kicked up and blown around. He covered his face as a blast of wind blew the shards of dream in his direction.

He only had a second to wonder why what he interpreted to be wind in fact felt like water splashing him in the face. He felt a light patting on his cheek followed by another splash of water.

He opened his eyes to find everything nauseatingly blurry. A few drops of water dripped from his hair to his nose. The Warden swallowed hard, finding an odd taste of blood in his mouth. He shook his head, trying to make whoever was patting his cheek stop.

"Hey... Hey! You still with me?" Past the droplets of water that stained his glasses, Penna's image slowly came into sharper focus. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"_Hnng_...wha?" The Warden groaned. He only managed to mumble one more word before leaning his head back against the wall. "Dream..?"

"Oh thank heavens..." Penna slumped, completely relieved. She wiped a bit of sweat off her brow and leaned back on her arm, setting an empty glass to her side. "Thought I was about to be in big trouble there for a second."

Suddenly, the Warden sprang up. He looked down his front to find his pajamas covered in blood. He sniffed and tasted more of it in his mouth.

Penna jumped a little, scooting herself back. "Now... take it easy, you'll faint if you push yourself."

"N-no...Did you... You fucking drugged me!" The Warden snapped. As he reached to grab her, he felt a rush overtake him, forcing him to attempt to hold his focus steady.

"J-just settle down alright?"

"Settle down? The hell did you do to me?" He continued to shout, wooziness be damned. He let himself fall against the edge of the bed, he found it much more comforting than the wall.

"I had to make sure you were really you..." She tried to reason. Her hand absentmindedly grazed the separate, tiny pool of blood that had collected around her knees. She'd been careful not to let it get on her clothes. She cursed herself for forgetting to offer the Warden the same courtesy.

"What does that even mean...!" He whimpered, almost crying. "How many times to I have to tell you people _I_ _am_ _the_ Warden!" He buried his face in the covers that drooped over the side. He felt so exhausted, nauseated, and just all around miserable.

"Just...ugh...Just take me back to SuperJail so I can get the hell out of here."

"Well um...we can't. It was sort of...destroyed yesterday..."

"W-What?"

"I'm telling you, you have got to stop screaming or you're going to go into shock and die." Penna bit her lip and looked around the room, trying to find _something_ that might help calm him down.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"_No!_"

"Listen if you can't calm yourself, I'm going to have to put you out again." Penna warned, standing over him. She bent down to pick up her notebook and pen.

'_Although I don't quite know how...'_ She added in her mind.

The Warden shook his head and inhaled deeply. His head was pounding, he felt too dizzy to think properly. SuperJail, destroyed? How was that possible? Then it hit him, he remembered hearing the explosions before he was knocked out.

He rose his head and searched for a bathroom. Maybe if he could wash his face or throw up he'd feel better. Knees shaking he struggled to stand again. Penna gently took a hold of his arm and let him brace himself against her. He wasn't really thrilled with her help but the idea of possibly collapsing again, perhaps in a pile of his own sick, made him even more ill.

Penna waited anxiously outside for him to finish cleaning up. She was relieved to hear the sound of running water on the inside. After a few more minutes of waiting, she was tempted to knock on the door and ask if he was alright, but she decided against it.

The door opened and the Warden slumped out, dabbing his face with a wet cloth. He felt much better than he looked.

"I know I'm not going to like the answer to this," He began tossing the cloth on the linoleum behind him. "But what now?"

Penna hesitated. "Right now, I guess stay here."

"Perfect. Wonderful. I take it my time-machine is kaput as well?"

She nodded. "We're trying to figure that out... I mean, we're trying to decide what we're going to do about that."

The Warden carefully walked back over to the bed. He sat down and rubbed his temples, trying to get rid of the rest of his headache.

"Isn't it obvious? Just build another one." He said.

"Yeah that's what we're trying to figure out. Can you remember how you built it?"

"Of course I can."

"Oh good, I was afraid I was going to have to look for that as well." Penna heaved a nervous laugh that sounded more like a cough than a chuckle.

"Don't even think about it." The Warden responded sharply.

Penna fell silent. She felt a sense of guilt grow inside her. Over the years she'd gotten used to doing what it was she did. After a while she stopped feeling sorry for her victims. She hadn't noticed she'd stopped caring until now. Realizing this made her feel even worse about what she'd done.

He wouldn't hear her out now if she apologized. She couldn't blame him either.

"Alright then," She said sympathetically, "If you need anything there's a..." She paused and looked around the room for a moment. "Phone around here somewhere."

"Fine." Was his reply. And with that she nodded, turned and head out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Penna dreaded having to take the mile-long walk to the other Warden's office. She flipped through the hurriedly-scribbled notes she'd just taken, trying to figure out exactly what it was she was going to report in.

"_Miss Howl."_ A gruff voice barked through the tiny speaker on her collar button. Her train of thought halted right then.

Penna sighed heavily before pressing the button to respond. "Yes Jared, what is it?" She made no attempt to mask the annoyed tone of her voice.

There was a pause before another, much angrier voice could be heard shouting in the background.

_"Tell her to hurry the hell up!"_

Penna pursed her lip and lightly smacked her forehead.

"_Miss Howl,_ t_he Warden wants to see you right away." _

"Of course he does." She sighed, before pressing the button again. "Tell him not to lose his pretty little head, I'm on my way."

She hesitated for a moment before swearing under her breath and storming down the rest of the hallway.

She'd barely reached the door to the other's office before she could hear the shouting coming from within. Whoever it was inside was clearly not in any friendly mood. Penna didn't even bother knocking, as no one would have heard her.

"I can't believe this! Does he even _know_ the trouble he's caused? What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

"You should be happy." Penna said calmly, leaning against the door-frame. "Now you have someone around who might actually want to hear you scream."

"I didn't ask for your opinion Howl!" The other slammed his hand on his desk, causing his coffee cup a stack of papers to tip over. Jared, now donning a more self-confident manner, wearing an olive-colored uniform and eye-patch over his right eye, had been standing beside the other and was now busying himself with cleaning up the mess of spilled coffee and papers.

"No, but you did ask to see me." Penna responded flatly.

The other pinched the bridge of his nose. Jared stepped out, taking the pile of coffee-stained papers with him to replace them with cleaner ones.

"For your sake, I wouldn't push it too far today." He whispered quietly as he passed her.

"What did you find out?" The other asked, the stress of his current predicament showing on his face and in his voice. "Can we kill him or not?"

Penna thought for a moment. She strode her way to the nearest chair in front of his desk.

"I'm no expert on these things," she began, flipping again through her notes. "But I'm almost positive that if you killed him it'd be like killing yourself."

"Of course it would be..."

"I mean, if that the _only_ solution you've been able to come up with then of course I'd be _happy_ to help." She smiled innocently, dramatically turning a page.

The other smiled as well, out of warning, gritting his teeth.

"Oh you're going to help alright. You're going to watch his every move and make damn well sure that he stays out of the way!"

"You already have me doing that."

"Well...Th-then do it better!" He put his hands on his hips making sure his point was understood. "Does he at least remember how he built the damn thing?"

"Yes. And why don't _you_, exactly?" Penna asked pointedly.

The other's eyes darted around for a second. "Because I'm busy trying to successfully take over the world! I don't have time to play with stupid toys."

Penna rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, obviously. What do you want some with him now?"

"I don't care! Just get him whatever supplies he needs and get him out of here."

She took that as her cue to leave and halfheartedly saluted him on her way out.

The Warden pushed back the curtains of his window and felt disgusted at what he saw below.

Hundreds of dome-like tents spread out in uniform rows all kept safe by a towering steel and barbed-wire fence. A flagpole waving a white flag with a red circled cross design stood in the center of this prison-like camp. A few medics could be seen sprinting around the camp carting wounded patience on stretchers.

He was used to seeing this sort of thing. He was used to seeing it from a warden's point of view. The more he stared out his window, the more he felt like a prisoner in his own prison.

His mind turned to the thought of his beloved and now destroyed SuperJail. He rested his head against the glass, trying to figure out what his future-self's plans might be.

It had only been a passing fancy that popped into his head when he'd been swooped away to the mercy of the Time-Court. He had only caught a glimpse of his future-self and ambitions. He'd completely ignored every shred of evidence provided by the Judge that he would and indeed had turned into someone completely ruthless. At the time he only laughed and admired how astonishing and powerful he looked.

He made a point to himself, watching another wounded person get whisked away, that if he ever- no no, _when_ he got back to his own time he'd shove away any more fleeting desires of world domination.

A light tap on his shoulder brought him out of his trance. As he turned around he instantly jumped back, hitting his head.

"Ack... Y-you!" He stammered, pushing himself further into the window.

"Eheh, truce?" Penna smiled sheepishly. She lifted up a nicely folded lively-purple suit in one hand, matching top-hat and cane in the other.

The Warden stared at her before snatching up his clothes.

"Nothing to drink this time?" He snarled, placing his hat on. He ran his fingers across the brim, making sure it still fit.

"I'm not here for that... and if it counts for anything, I'm sorry."

"Right," he dismissed, "So why are you here?"

"Well, if you're up for it I'm supposed to take you on a tour, then later help you compile a list of materials you need to rebuild your machine." Penna looked around for a moment, as if looking for something neither were quite aware of. "But if you're not up to it now then I understand."

The Warden was about to say something, but was interrupted by the beeping noise coming from her collar button.

Penna held her breath and shut her eyes. "One sec, 'kay?" She didn't wait for the Warden to give her permission before she turned around to answer whoever was calling her.

"Yes?"

"_What are you doing?_" The sharp-sounding voice of the other echoed statically throughout.

"Why do you _insist_ on asking questions you already know the answer to?"

"_Shut up! Has he got the list ready or not?_"

"Would you relax? I _just_ got here. No he doesn't have a list ready." She paused, glancing over her shoulder. The Warden's expression was that of terror outweighed by confusion.

"You don't do you?" Penna asked him. He silently shook his head, mouth slightly open.

"_Argh! HURRY UP!_" The speaker cut out after creating a harsh screeching noise.

Penna growled under her breath before shaking herself into a calmer composure. She heaved another cough-chuckle at the Warden, pulling a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"So, like I said. If you don't feel up to it I completely understand."

The Warden shook his head again, tossing his suit on the bed.

"No I want out of here just as much as he wants me to be." He gestured towards her vest pocket.

"Can I borrow that?"

She nodded, taking her pen out and flipping rapidly through her notebook to find a clean page. It took a few seconds as it was pretty full. She handed him the pen first, a bit reluctant to give him the book.

The Warden eyed her, clicking the pen. "So what sort of things do you-" He yanked the book from her hands. "Keep in here?"

He sprinted to the side then across the room. Penna, a bit stunned took a moment before chasing him.

"N-no wait! Don't!"

The Warden leaped past her, giggling as he turned to the most recent page he could find.

"Give it back you jerk!" He leaped again.

He wasn't absorbing what it was he was reading aloud and as Penna chased after him he continued to jump to and from all sides of his room, quite enjoying himself so much so he nearly forgot about his tender limbs.

"Goodness gracious you have atrocious handwriting." He snickered. "Ah, let's see; '_subject enters doorway. Subject find a pod-like machine and hides upon seeing himself. He then tries to alter memory._'"

The Warden, now bouncing on his bed stopped. Another look of confusion grew on his face. Penna panted, out of breath from his game. She bent over, holding herself up on her knees.

The Warden continued to read from her notes, now expressing more concern than confusion.

"'_Subject is then pulled to most recent traumatic experience. Subject is not forced to fully review this memory._'" He looked to Penna, then back to the notebook. "'_Subject's identity confirmed.'_"


	7. Chapter 7

"What are you, twelve?" Penna snapped, huffing as she braced herself on her knees. The Warden plopped down on his bed, folding his arms across his chest, nose high in the air.

"It would have been nice to have known they were sending a _mind-rapist _to torture me."

"I told you, I'm not going to torture you." She said sternly, motioning for him to return her book.

"I mean, I won't unless you're having trouble remembering how you've built your machine." She finished with a grin.

The color flushed from his face, he flipped to the nearest clean page and hastily started writing.

"No no, that's quite alright."

Penna chuckled a little. She rubbed her chin, sort of examining the Warden.

"What?" He'd caught her looking at him.

"Are you sure you two are the same person?" She cocked a brow, pushing her spectacles on her nose.

"Not entirely." He replied.

There was a moment of silence as he scribbled his schematics down.

"So, how long have you been working for me?" He asked, not completely comfortable with the awkward quietness.

Penna thought for a moment, her smirk slowly diminishing into a saddened expression.

"Well," she began, a slight melancholy in her voice. "In a few weeks it'll be three years." She laughed softly, trying to get herself to smile again.

"Honestly, I'm surprised I've lasted this long."

"Oh I'm not that bad am I?" The Warden chirped. His reply was out of flirtatious instinct. It was only just after he spoke did everything come back to him. "I mean, yeah he didn't even recognize _me_..._himself_, shot at me, kicked me and-"

"Ordered that I drug and '_mind-rape' _you." She finished for him.

"Speaking of that, you drank the same thing I did," He started, tearing out the paged he'd written on. "How come you weren't knocked out as well?"

"Higher resistance. That and you were still recovering from the anesthetics. Which, I told him you weren't in any condition to be put out again, but what do I know, right?" Penna shrugged. "Don't worry, you're safe as far as being killed or tortured goes."

"That's _incredibly_ reassuring." He remarked dully. "So... do you do anything else or just...whatever it is you do?"

Her reply wasn't an immediate one, she arched an unamused brow at him for a moment, seemingly examining him once more.

"When I'm not busy 'doing whatever it is I do', I help Jared with his duties. Oh! That reminds me, if you're going to skip out on the tour then I have to attend a meeting." She gestured again for her notebook.

The Warden handed it to her, trying to resist the urge to blurt out the next question that had popped into his mind. Another sinking feeling began to swell in the pit of his stomach. He didn't want to be left alone again. He thought perhaps he'd be able to find Jailbot or Jared or _someone else _he'd feel more at home with.

He looked at Penna who was waiting for some sort of response from him.

"Can I...come along?" He cleared his throat, putting on a an air of forced confidence.

"I mean, I _am_ the Warden after all. While I'm here shouldn't I be allowed to attend these meetings?" It didn't matter whose time he was in, or how many of him there were; he was still the Warden. He wasn't about to be pushed around and told what to do, least of all by himself.

Penna glanced over her shoulder at the door, hesitant to answer. "um...Well I'm supposed to keep you out of the way but," She bit her lip, weighing the situation in her mind.

"You know what, you're right." She grinned slyly. "You should attend. This _is _your future, isn't it? Who says he can tell _you_ 'no'?"

"Um...R-Right?" He regretted asking, put off by her ever-stretching grin.

"It's just a boring tactics meeting anyway. All we're going to do is listen to him gloat about how wonderful and flawless his plans are. You'd enjoy that, right?" Penna snarked, leaning to her side.

"M-Maybe." He defended, though his forced-confidence seemed to be wearing off with every word he uttered.

She nodded, her grin still fixed across her face. "Get dressed then, I'll meet you outside."

She turned to walk away as the Warden unbuttoned his now crusty pajama top.

"You're supposed to be my nanny, right? You're not going to hel-" He was interrupted by the sudden slam of his door.

"I guess not." He added with a smirk of his own.

He quickly put on his new suit, feeling a little better. More like himself. This feeling didn't stay with him as long as he would have liked it to however. As he stepped outside his room he was half-expecting to see the corridor that would lead from his room to his office. He was greeted however by a endless sterile-white hallway and gray linoleum floor.

"You know, I think you look better in this color,"

Penna's voice had startled him a bit, bringing him back into reality.

"Makes you look less like a power-crazed dickhead."

"Th-thank you?" He didn't know whether to feel complemented or insulted. He straightened his collar, clearing his throat.

"Which way then?" He looked to both sides of him half-hoping that a sense of familiarity would come to him.

"This way, we'll take the lift. We're meeting in the Conference room today." Penna scoffed, rolling her eyes. The Warden didn't know whether to take this as a good sign or bad. He didn't feel the need to voice his opinion on the matter either. He didn't think it would make the situation any better.

He jumped again as Penna took a hold of his sleeve and pulled him down the hall. He tried to keep his view on her as they walked, the lack of color that engulfed him was quickly beginning to give him a headache. He felt an overwhelming sense of awkwardness; the silence between them also making him feel ill.

She didn't seem to notice or care rather as she would tug harder on his sleeve if he seemed to slow down.

The two reached the lift, Penna pressing a few buttons to call it. A few seconds of waiting before a cheerful, yet out-of-place bell chimed upon its arrival. As they stepped in, Penna pressed another button and the lift smoothly whisked them away to their destination.

The quietness, now encased in a tiny elevator choked him even more. His thoughts started to run away with him, following the sound of the rising lift.

"So, um, three years eh? What's it like, working for me?"

"The term 'work' implies some sort of payment right?"

He regretted breaking the silence.

"I suppose-"

"Then I can't honestly tell you what it's like _working_ for you."

"Why did you do it?" Penna asked pointedly after yet another moment of eerie quietness, yet clearly annoyed. "Start the war I mean."

He repeated her question in his mind a few times, he didn't seem to want to comprehend it. He couldn't hold on to a thought, nor did he want to. He just wanted to listen to the sound of the elevator ascending.

"I dunno, _I _ haven't started it yet." He said blankly, shrugging. Her folded arms and furrowed brow made him feel as though he were about to be severely punished for something he hadn't yet done.

"I'm guessing it's become something more than just...making SuperJail bigger, eh?"

"_I dunno._" She mimicked back, adding a heavy tone of distaste. "I'm not sure what he's going to do now that it's gone."

"We'll rebuild it of course!" the Warden piped. He patted her on the back a few times, trying to comfort the both of them. His efforts didn't seem to work however.

"You have no understanding of the word 'consequences' do you?"

He was about to retort just as the out-of-place bell chimed again.

The doors to the lift opened and the two stepped out. Penna, arms still folded and a little more anxious in her pace headed down another white corridor. The Warden followed behind her hastily, holding onto his hat to keep it from blowing off.

Penna halted suddenly, causing the Warden to bump into her. Her collar button was beeping again.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, tapping her foot impatiently for a few seconds before answering the call.

"Yes-"

_"Are you coming or not?"_

"There is no need to shout."

_"ARE YOU OR AREN'T YOU?"_

She winced covering the speaker with her palm to drown out the screeching from the other Warden.

"I'm about twenty steps from the door, start without me if you're so keen on it." She pressed a different button, presumably one that would mute incoming transmissions. Flipping a section of hair that had come loose behind her ear, and adjusting her spectacles, she glanced over her shoulder to the Warden.

"Ready?" She smiled, laugh-coughing like she had before. He nodded proudly, nose in the air as he marched ahead of her.

He wasn't about to let himself be intimidated by...well...himself. He knew that, going by what she said at least, that he was safe from any further harm. His gut told him not to trust this particular piece of information, but he was the Warden. Nothing was supposed to scare him. He was master of the world's largest, most fantastic, most _super _prison in the world! And had been so since he was a toddler!

He took a deep breath, ignoring the quieted snickers coming from Penna. Even the most brutal of riots he had ever witnessed did not wretch his stomach as outstretching his hand to open the door marked 'Conference' had.


	8. Chapter 8

The Warden, goaded by the continuous snickering of Penna hurriedly opened the door. The two of them, or perhaps it was just him who had been so distracted and failed to notice the shouting that was carrying on behind the door.

"They've had plenty of time to resupply, why don't they attack again!"

"Sir, that's just what you're expecting to happen." Future-Jared tried to reason.

"Exactly! They wouldn't expect that I would expect that they would...expect!"

"Of course sir"

"Yes, yes- YOU!" The Future-Warden spat out, pointing angrily at his counterpart who had just inched his way inside.

"HOWL!"

"Yessir?" Penna chimed, poking her head out from behind the Warden's shoulders.

"What is he doing here? You!" He pointed again to the Warden, whose color had vanished from him again. "You are supposed to be rebuilding that goddamn contraption!"

"Calm down." Penna rolled her eyes, patting the Warden on the back. He flinched, a tiny whimper peeped out of him.

"He wanted to come, so I brought him."

"Get. Him. Out of here!"

The Warden snapped-to, clenching his fist. With his cane in hand he jabbed his Future-self sharply in the chest.

"Look here you uh...you! I've had just about enough of this nonsense!" He pressed his cane deeper into the other's chest. The other, instead of welling over with rage like Penna would have expected him to, smiled, grinning even. The Warden just scowled even more.

"I've been thrown around, beaten up, drugged _against my will,_ _TWICE, _woke up with the worst hangover I've ever had no thanks to your errand-girl here,"

"Hey!"

"On top of getting _shot_!" He was furious, and well within his right to be. He'd spent all morning telling himself that he wasn't going to be pushed around by the likes of these people and if he was going to get home in one piece he was going to make it known that his predicament was priority.

"Dammit I don't care _who_ you are! All I know is you wouldn't be here without me so you had just better stay out of _my_ way! _Understand_?"

"You pick now of all times to grow a pair? Fantastic. Fine, stay and learn a thing or two about ruling the world. It would do you some good." The other snarled.

"But don't get comfortable, Warden; you will not be staying here for long. As for _you_," he glared at Penna. He spoke slowly, gesturing for her to come closer.

"You and I will talk later."

"Can't wait." She replied, matching his glare with her own.

The air between she and the other quickly dissolved the momentary burst of confidence the Warden had managed to summon up. He tried his best not to show this however.

"Ahem." Jared cleared his throat loudly, motioning toward the long desk. "If you three don't mind we're here to discuss urgent matters."

He took his plain, black seat which was to the right of a very elaborate plum-colored armchair with a very intricate golden trimming. He pulled out of his pocket a remote of some kind, it only had a few buttons on it. Just as he pressed one, the lights in the room dimmed. The Warden jumped a little again and was thankful that it was dark enough that no one had seen.

Penna and the other Warden quietly growled at each other before taking their respective seats. Future-Warden's obviously being the more extravagant while she found herself at the far end of the table, the furthest seat from him.

"_Psst._" Penna whispered to the Warden who was trying to figure out who would be safest to sit by. "You _can_ sit down now."

"Yes please do." The other Warden groaned with a sense of false-hospitality. The Warden took the chair closest to his Future-self, throwing on another facade of confidence. He straightened his shoulders, sitting upright, matching the posture of his counterpart.

Jared pressed another button and a screen descended from an opening in the ceiling. At the same time on the wall behind the Future-Warden, a projector popped out of an opening as well. It instantly flipped on and illuminated the wall in a soft white light. Penna took out her notebook and pen once more and turned to a note-filled page as the projector's image came into deeper focus.

A map of some sort was displayed on the screen. It showed certain topographical areas in chunks that were spread across the display. Red and green dots littered the little sections of map. In a few of the sections there were large black 'X's in random places.

"We've found four camps and have obtained three." The Future-Warden started pointing to the various 'X's, the reflection of the screen glistening off of his amber glasses as he smiled with a sort of villainous glee.

"The fourth," he continued. "Is under heavier guard than we expected. The insurgents are now teaming up with the rest of America and part of Mexico's army."

His smile did not falter as he spoke. If anything, he was glad to announce a challenge for a change. "Now with the fall of SuperJail-"

"Yeah about that..." The Warden piped up, raising a finger meekly to gain attention.

_"Shut up!"_ The other hissed, waving his hand to silence him. "With the fall of SuperJail, our gunships suffered the greatest loss, so we will not have the aerial advantage I would have liked to have had for at least another month or so while we rebuild our fleet. Thankfully most of our forces are either here or occupied at said obtained bases- Howl are you getting this?"

"Hm." She nodded disinterestedly.

"I still don't know why everyone seems to be okay with _my_ SuperJail in ruin." The Warden mumbled.

"Because it doesn't matter right now!"

"Doesn't matter?" he gasped, jolting out of his chair. "Doesn't matter?"

"You need to sit down Warden." The other warned, his patience fading fast from his expressions.

"SuperJail is my life!" The Warden protested, "Yours too! At least it sure as hell ought to be! The whole point was to expand SuperJail, not get it destroyed in a fucking afternoon by a bunch of hack-shot rebels!"

"Listen Warden, with the plans I've got we're going to build and rebuild SuperJail a hundred times over." The other Warden replied calmly, though his gaped-toothed smile was quickly turning into a contorted grimace.

"You should have put more effort into preserving _this one_!"

"Past-Warden, sir, you really need to-"

"Are _you_ actually telling _me_ how to do _my_ job? You know it's your fault it was destroyed in the first place! I had everything under control until you showed up! I could have had my defenses ready and deployed before they even crossed the border! But _nooooooo!_ You just _had_ to test that infernal machine out didn't you? Didn't you?"

"If you thought an attack was likely to happen why weren't these 'defenses' already deployed!"

"Now now girls. Let's settle down and get back to business." Penna tapped her pen loudly on the table, creating a clatter to overcome the fight between them.

The two stood, nose to nose. Teeth bared and growling. They would have likely ripped each other's head's off were it not their own head they would be dismembering. The other adjusted his cloak while the Warden straightened his tie. They were waiting for the one to take their seat before the other.

"You're the one who brought him here, Howl!" the Future-Warden gestured to Penna before sitting back down.

"And now I want to get on with this so I can get back to work."

"Do _not_ test my patience any further than you already have today." The other leered at her.

"Or what?"

"Alright! Next slide then!" Jared called out above the shouting, quickly pressing another button on his remote. The next slide wasn't a map, but a photograph of a clean-cut older Military-type looking man. He was pictured holding a massive machine-gun, with the muscular figure to support it, standing proudly over a torn and charred 'SuperJail' flag. In the background was a group of people cheering happily, some waving 'anti-Warden' signs and banners.

"This is Daniel Byron. Captain of the insurgent forces currently located in enemy-base-four." Jared announced.

"Howl listen up this concerns you." Future-Warden pointed.

"Of course it does."

"I want him alive. _Alive_ Howl. He will make an excellent addition to our armies even more so after I, that is to say you find out every thing he knows."

"Fine," She yawned, tucking another piece of hair behind her ear. "What cell is he in?"

"Oh no no no, we haven't captured him yet." The other chuckled.

"Well then I'll get to him when you have."

"No, you're going to be the one to detain him." He propped his feet up on the table, smiling as smug as ever.

"W-what? You can't be serious!" Penna's jaw dropped as she lurched forward in protest. She pleaded to Jared with her eyes for _some_ sort of help. He could only shrug in disbelief himself.

"Oh I'm serious alright. You, are going to sneak right into their little camp, snatch up their little leader and bring him right, back, here."

"B-but what about him!" She frantically pointed to the Warden who now more than ever looked like he'd give anything to be _anywhere_ else than where he was sitting.

"Don't bring me into this..."

"He'll be safe with me." The Future-Warden nodded, still proudly wearing his smirk.

"um, sir..." Jared tried to interject.

"Dammit..." The Warden pulled the brim of his hat down as he sunk in his chair.

"_And if_ you make it back with with Mr. Byron _alive_ then you can continue to look after him. How does that sound?"

Penna clenched her fists so tight her knuckles began to turn white. "I've got a better idea. How about we list all the ways I can kill you with this pen!"

"So what you're saying is you'd like to be shipped out within the hour, Howl? Oh how I do love when you're so _eager_ to volunteer."

Penna bit her tongue, trying with all her might not to say the hundred things on her mind right then. She continued to clench her fists, wishing she could just bash his face in.

"Miss Howl." Jared tried again to reason. He didn't need to say anything else as she took a deep breath and sat down again.

"Right then." The Future-Warden clapped, so very pleased with himself. "Does anyone have any questions before we move on?"

"I do." Penna raised her hand, not really caring if permission to ask her question was granted or not.

"For fucks sake what is it!" He hadn't expected her to still have a bit of fight left.

"How are you going to feel when you find out it's an insurgent who's killed me and not you?"

"They'll be doing me a favor!" He roared, slamming his fist on the table. He huffed for a moment before taking a deep breath himself.

"I can't understand why you're worried. All you have to do is pretend as if you're against me. _You're already so good at it._" He snarled with gritted teeth. "Jared!"

"Yes sir?" Jared nodded, offering Penna an empathetic look before saluting the Future-Warden.

"It's been a long afternoon, and Howl has a big day tomorrow. I think it's best if we adjourn now so she can get her rest, don't you?"

"Very well sir. Come with me please, Miss Howl."

Penna kept her stare intently focused on the other Warden's eyes, her own hoping to cause him to burst into flame. She silently gathered her things, tucking them nicely into her vest pocket, never taking her eyes off of him for a second. There was so much more she wanted to say, but anything more would likely hasten her demise.

She slowly left for the door, lead by Jared. As soon as it shut behind them the muffled burst of curses and screaming could be heard as they headed down the hall.

Now it was just the two Wardens. One immensely satisfied with his actions, the other, wishing he could disappear into the darkness of the room.

"Now then, where is that list of yours?" The Future-Warden chimed again, flashing another gaped-toothed grin, holding out his hand.


	9. Chapter 9

The Warden's eyes shot from his Future-self to the door rapidly. He desperately wanted to make a break for it. But climbing over a table and sprinting for the exit in the dark, when played back in his head, his chances at success did not look good.

He bitterly reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his list of materials and the crudely doodled schematic.

"Thank you." The other snatched the pieces of paper out of his hands.

He glazed over it, examining each item listed only for a few seconds. His brow furrowed deeper the further his eyes traveled down the paper.

"This is everything, right?" The Future-Warden asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I think so."

"And you're absolutely sure you'll need everything here?"

"Yes...why?" The Warden raised a brow, a bit confused.

"Because some of these materials are going to be hard to come by. Especially now that my weapons facility was destroyed."

"What weapons facility?" The Warden couldn't remember ever building a storehouse.

The other cleared his throat, propping his feet again onto the table. "I _was_ using SuperJail as a secondary base- for protection you realize, it isn't in my best interest to stay in one place for too long. It _did_ always have the loveliest tools for inventing..."

"And _no_w," He added with a heavily accusatory tone. "Well, I have my air fleet to replenish."

The Warden ground his teeth. He knew very well what was going to be said next.

"Which means I need what materials I have left to resupply my forces."

The two glared at each other. Neither one happy with the current situation. It was now apparent that the Warden was going to be stuck here in his future until the supplies he needed to rebuild his time-machine could be obtained.

The weight of this realization hung heavily over the both of them.

"What exactly is missing, or rather, what am I waiting for you to acquire?"

"The lot of it." The other replied intently, tapping his fingers together and touching his mouth with his thumbs. "So it seems you _can_ make yourself comfortable. For the time being." He sighed heavily, the strain of his dreadful day visibly getting to him.

The Warden began rubbing his temples, equally as tired as his Future-self.

"Fantastic..."

"Why so glum Warden?" The other asked in an unfriendly tone. "You wanted to come here so badly after all. What exactly were you expecting to find? A thriving utopia waiting just for you?"

"Now wait a minute-"

"Well here's the thing _Warden_," He stood, putting his hands on his hips. His piercing stare burning though his amber glasses. "It's taken me six years just to get this far. I have control over most of Canada, parts of eastern Russia and a few countries in South America. True it's control, but there is a helluva lot more world out there for the taking. And it takes time, equipment and manpower that I don't have at the moment to fully realize my- our ambitions."

"Yeah I get that but-"

"I don't think you do. No, I know you don't."

"Listen here you!" Now the two were nose to nose once more.

"I came here for the sake of curiosity; to learn something! Not to find myself full of bullets and needles and whatever the hell it was you drugged me with."

"You're still mad about that?"

"Yes! You _shot_ me!"

"Well what better way to sate one's curiosity than to experience first-hand what it feels like to be gunned down, eh?" The other Warden chuckled heartily.

"If that made any sense at all, I might consider it to be humorous."

"You know, it is really." The other held up one finger and rolled his pant-leg up to his knee to reveal a small scarred piece of flesh on his calf.

The Warden blinked and felt a twinge of pain in the same, but stitched spot on his leg.

"It's funny because if this hadn't happened, then I would have seen no reason to save you. Though," He rolled his pant-leg down. "If I had killed you, according to...physics apparently, it would have caused some rip in the space-time thing." Another grin flashed across his face.

"Well that's all very nice, but what are we- excuse me, _you_ going to do about my machine?"

"Ah, well this insurgent camp we're planning to take over happens to have a stockpile of weaponry, building materials and such. Unfortunately it isn't enough, going by our estimate, to replace what I've lost."

"Can't win them all." The Warden knew he was going to have to wait until everything was restocked, resupplied or what have you, he didn't feel the need to be and was starting to become annoyed from being reminded of it so much.

"No, but not to worry, Warden. You should know very well I have my own special tools for success. Take Howl for instance; she will do her part in acquiring the officers I need, which I will then use to lead the attack on the supply camps of the insurgents."

"What if she can't though?"

"If not, then take a good long look at your new home; because until I get what _I_ want, you will just have to stick it out here."

The other's mind wandered for a moment. "Maybe I could get the Doctor to give you a face-transplant...that way I could actually find some use out of you..."

"What the hell!"

The other chuckled, patting the scar on his arm hidden by his sleeve. "No, no...I suppose it would have a similar effect on me," He said. "And we can't have that."

He picked up the remote and pressed the button to turn the lights back on. The screen ascended back into it's place, along with the projector in it's place.

"I'm giving you grounds permission, so feel free to walk about what you like. Just try not to cling to everyone familiar you meet. We all have important business to take care of."

"You're _giving_ me permission?"

"Yes." The Future-Warden hissed, pushing his chair back and stepping away from the table. That was the last word out of him as the rushing sound of his cloak followed him out the door.

"Dickhead."

Meanwhile, several floors down into the lower levels and inside a tiny, cramped room with iron-barred windows, bricked up from behind as though to add further insult to that which inhabited it, quite a ruckus appeared to be going on behind the steel-clad door.

"Argh!" A china vase was hurled against the drab royal-blue wall, exploding in a mess of porcelain shards.

"He can't do this to me!"

"I'm afraid he can actually." Jared said, unfazed by the shattered vase.

"I'm going to get killed," Penna paced in circles around her room. Her messy bun was now a pile of tangled hair on top of her head. "I'm going blow my cover and die. And that's just what he fucking wants too, isn't it!"

"Miss Howl, he wouldn't have done this if he didn't think you would succeed."

"Like hell he wouldn't!" She shouted, stomping her foot.

"Well, I _did_ warn you earlier didn't I?"

Penna bit her lip, looking for more things to throw at her wall. She exhaled harshly through her nostrils, not finding anything within reach.

"You're not going to be sent out there by yourself with no backup. He's not going to let you die just like that, even if you tried to get yourself killed. Trust me, I know."

"Oh, so he's had this planned for a while now has he?"

"Actually no, your little outburst must have inspired it." Jared said, almost chuckling. "Don't ask me to talk him out of it either, we're all walking on thin ice as it is. Especially with that other Warden here."

She began to tap her foot, her heart swelled with anxiety. She knew he'd been on edge since the Warden arrived, why did she have to go and antagonize him even more?

"At any rate," Jared continued, kicking the shattered china pieces into a pile. "Capturing the Captain will definitely work in your favor with him."

"Yeah right...If by some miracle I actually make it back with him '_alive'_," She mimicked the Future-Warden's voice and exaggerated expression. "Then he'll only send me out again when he wants another one captured..."

"It's possible. But if by some miracle you actually hold that temper of yours, you might find it easier to get out of here than if you just keep fighting him."

"I...I can't. You know as well as I do if I submit I'm just another prisoner. I'm ever going to get out of here Jared I can't let him beat me." She shook her head defiantly. Part of her, the part of herself which she chose to ignore though not without great difficulty, already knew very well she couldn't possibly be any more of a prisoner than she already was.

"Penna..." Jared sighed, he rarely ever called her by her name. It wasn't as though he disliked her, quite the contrary. The two had gotten very close over the years they worked together. Being a partner first and foremost to the Warden taught him that other friendships were to be dealt with carefully, professionally. Though he considered himself to be saintlike in the matter, the Warden, or in this case the Future-Warden was not a forgiving person.

"That man has power. He can either use it for you, or against you. If you keep this up, soon you're going to find yourself back on the slab." Jared nodded. The concern in his voice went unheard by her.

She remained silent, drowning in the overwhelming abyss that clouded her mind.

"Although, now that _he's_ here, you might find yourself off the hook easier than you think. Don't chance it though."

"A minute ago you said we were all on thin ice because of him."

"Well, knowing him, he'd know all the best ways to get under the Warden's skin."

"So you're saying I should take pointers?"

"_Back on the slaaab._" Jared ended in a sing-song tone as he turned to leave Penna's room.


	10. Chapter 10

The Warden was again left alone. Something told him that it would be best to get used to this feeling and quick. He stared at the floor, absentmindedly twiddling his thumbs, contemplating what he should do next.

He could go back to his room, he thought. He then realized he didn't know the way. He sneered upon remembering he was given 'permission' to explore, but the thought of getting lost in this place did not set well with him either.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a phone sitting on a small end-table. He carefully slithered over to it and even more cautiously put the receiver to his ear. He listened to the dial-tone for a few seconds, trying to remember a certain extension number.

It didn't occur to him until later that the number he had in mind might have changed. After punching in the four digits, the dial-tone shifted into the soft, reassuring ringing sound, hopefully connecting him to his former assistant.

A break on the other end caught his attention.

"_Did you change your mind and are actually going to send me out in an hour?_"

"O-oh, no, I just wanted to know which way my room was." He wasn't as surprised as he probably would have been upon hearing Penna's irritated voice. She on the other hand was very surprised to hear his.

"_Oh,_" There was a short pause on her end. "_Just take the lift to level 'H'. After that turn right and it's the fifth door on the left._"

Her tone quickly changed into the exhausted but cheerful one he'd heard when they first met. Both seemed to know it was just an act however as the Warden quickly stammered out another sentence.

"Uh...good luck, I guess." He muttered. A quick burst of sympathy flowed through him, a feeling which he hurriedly shook away as he anxiously waited for a moment to end this awkward conversation.

"_Yeah, thanks_." Penna scoffed, it was very easy to tell she rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"'Kaybyethen." Was all the Warden managed to get out before dropping the phone onto it's jack.

"Level 'H', to the right then fifth on the left." He looked around the empty conference room, suddenly filled with the strangest feeling he'd forgotten something. Not knowing what it could be, he shrugged and headed out the door, greeted again by the blindingly-white corridor.

"Um..." He looked to both sides of him. He didn't think to ask her which way the lift was, and he honestly didn't want to go back and find out. Another quick glance from side to side, then a flash of instinct guided him to the left down the hallway.

The Future-Warden adjusted his helmet with one hand before smugly pushing the combination of buttons on a keypad to the side of Penna's door. The door chimed the 'override' sound at his command, as her door would lock from the outside automatically, and he strode into her room, carrying a plastic bag of sorts with various items sticking out of it.

"HOWL!"

"What!" She stepped out of her bathroom, haphazardly re-adjusting that mess of a bun on top of her head.

"It's been decided that you'll need new attire for this mission. And out of the _goodness_ of my own heart I had the caring sense enough to _dispose_ those rags you first wandered in here with. You...no longer possess them, so you get these."

"Firstly, I didn't '_wander_' anywhere, you-"

"Yes, yes whatever," He interrupted. "These will do, you'll look even...plainer than ever. You'll blend right in with those scumbags."

She examined the obviously second-hand (more than likely once belonging to someone recently relieved of their right to live) dark tee-shirt and olive-colored pants he was pulling out of the bag. She could see the caked on dirt and was a bit surprised he himself would handle such things.

"I didn't figure you for the type to be into 'role-playing'."

"If you'd rather I can just kick you out now with nothing on at all!"

"Ha! How long have you been painting _that_ picture!" She burst into laughter, snatching the rolled up clothes from his hands and tossing them behind her.

"Don't flatter yourself!" He fumed, pointing his finger at her. "The _only_ reason I keep you here is because you are _somewhat,_" He paused, adding heavy emphasis in his words. "Useful to- Stop that!"

Penna had begun mouthing his words as he spoke. She was all too familiar with what he was saying.

"You know we have this conversation about twice a month, right?"

"So then, I shouldn't have to remind you how _hazardous_ it would be to your health if, in the _highly unlikely_ event that you get the _tiniest inkling_ to, oh let's say, _escape- _ Which I again shouldn't need to remind you that you _will_ be under heavy surveillance throughout this mission-"

His face contorted into a menacing grin as he gently patted her on her shoulders. Her stomach churned with disgust, wishing she had something to stab him with.

He lowered his head to her level, just inches away from her face. "I will be forced, _forced_ to discharge you of your duties here in _every_ excruciating way I could possibly think of. And I am a _very_ imaginative soul, _Howl_."

One would have been able to taste it in the air, the hate that welled within her.

"Why send me out at all if you think I'd make a run for it?" She forced herself to smile through her clenched teeth.

"Because, my dear, it's all good fun for me." He said simply, circling her as he spoke.

"If you manage to bring the Captain back here; I win. If you successfully convert him; I win. If you fail to do so; the consequences you will suffer will be yet another win for me. _Or_, if you abandon your post; I will then recapture and kill you."

The Future-Warden's eyes flashed with a vulturous desire for a moment before he returned to his collected self. "So every way you look at it, I win all around. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Very." She said abruptly, motioning toward the pile of clothes. "Now if that's all I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible. _I need my rest, _don't I?"

The other ground his teeth. "Don't think you're going on some day-trip either! I want him detained before the week is out, you got it? Any longer and I'll save them the trouble of torturing you." He shoved the now almost-empty bag into her face.

"I thought the whole...point of this was to save you...the trouble?" She sarcastically questioned him, tossing it behind her as well.

"If you're _that_ anxious to die Howl, you need only ask." The other, quickly becoming more infuriated by the second scowled.

Penna didn't directly respond to this right away. She matched his sour expression with her own.

"I think your buddy might be lost. You left him all on his own didn't you?"

The Future-Warden paused, trying to understand what she meant.

"It's not _my_ job to watch him, Howl." A grin stretched across his face.

"Y-you sent me to my room!" She called out in disgust, tossing her hands into the air. "What the hell was I supposed to do, take him with me?"

"Excuses, excuses." He dismissed, waving his hand as he turned for the door.

Her door swiftly shut behind him, a quieted series of beeping followed.

"Ugh!" Penna screamed, kicking the pile of supplies into the air.


	11. Chapter 11

"Shit..." The Warden cursed as he was met with another dead end. He knew he shouldn't have taken this turn. He turned around disdainfully, knowing full well that he would only be faced with the series of endless hallways and confusing turns.

He'd never been in a standard, or rather _traditional_ hospital before, but from what he knew of them he couldn't fathom what could have possibly possessed him that he would design his own personal one into a hellish maze like this.

Then again, as he thought about it, he supposed he _would_ perhaps design something this extensive and winding. Though, as he was currently lost and no one in sight to point him in the right direction, he couldn't fully appreciate the beauty of such intricacy, especially with a painful lack of color. He'd given up on finding his room, or the lift for that matter, which was another thing that puzzled him; why the hell would he only put one lift in this entire wing?

After a good ten or fifteen minutes more of getting himself turned around, finding those dreaded dead-ends and even more corridors, he finally tossed his cane down in anger stomping on it with his good leg.

"Goddammit I just want to get out of here! Where the hell is the _exit_!"

Just then, he heard the the sound of panels sliding behind him. An opening in the wall with a slight and all too welcoming breeze seemed to appear out of nowhere. Above the opening, a dot-matrix screen beamed in neon-green the words '_Voice Recognized … Enjoy your walk, Warden …'_

The Warden couldn't help but smile at this, though unnerving it may have been. He picked his cane back up, shining the handle on his daffodil-yellow shirt. He tip-toed to the very edge, peaking around both corners just to make sure it was safe to leave. He heard the sound of a whistle blowing not too far away, followed by a unison of marching boots.

Stepping further out in the open, the light caught on his glasses, blinding him for a moment. Another thing he wasn't used to; natural sunlight. He couldn't even recall the last time he'd felt this unfamiliar warmth. It wasn't uncomfortable to him, just _unfamiliar._ He'd always generated his own light back at SuperJail. Day and night were his to control, he preferred it that way.

The sharp whistle could be heard clearer now. Once his eyes had adjusted, it took him a good second to process his current surroundings. What looked like some sort of maniacal training course extended as far as he could see.

There were towering, impossible obstacle courses with various bits and bobs of spinning blades, spiked plates and whatnot protruding all over the grounds. Soldiers, dressed in very peculiar camouflage-esque black and plum patterned uniforms busied themselves in trying to overcome these obstacles.

The Warden felt a twinge of excitement upon hearing the screams of those who failed.

His concentration was broken by the harsh blowing of the whistle. He hadn't even noticed he was walking toward the closest glorified death-trap.

"Alright lady-boys, your piss-poor performance is starting to get on my tits." The rough and deep voice barked at the twenty or so mangled, scarred, stone-cold soldiers lined neatly in a row. Their hollow expressions couldn't quite cover up the fear instilled by the woman (and by exterior looks she did at least resemble a woman) with bright red hair, dressed in a revoltingly-tight black-leather body-suit screaming at them. She wrung the riding-crop in her hands tightly as she paced in along the ranks.

The Warden felt his heart leap just then. He was so relieved to see a familiar face, one that hadn't changed completely.

"If I don't see you busting balls in the next five minutes, I'm taking your candy-asses around back and-"

"A-Alice! Alice! Oh dear Lord how I've missed you, Alice!" He sprinted to her, arms wide open. If they had been back at SuperJail, he would have likely floated right on a cloud to her. As he leaped into the air, his face came into abrupt contact with her open palm, knocking him several inches backward.

Dazed, it took a good second or two to acknowledge the terrible pain his nose and mouth were currently in. His mouth soon filled with blood that he spat out from the gap in his teeth. Future-Alice turned to face her clingy assailant, growling irritably. Her expression deepened into an even more angered scowl when she saw who it was she had knocked down.

"What the hell was that for?" The Warden coughed, wiping his chin free of blood on his sleeve.

"Sorry, didn't see you." It was obvious she wasn't sorry and more than likely did see him coming. Nonetheless, she shrugged it off and tapped her crop in her hand repeatedly.

The Warden patted his bottom to rid it of dust and dirt. This was his only suit he had with him and it was unlikely that his Future-self had any more readily available for him. He had to keep it as clean as possible for the time being.

"Don't tell me you can't recognize me either Alice, I'm only your _boss_ after all." He hissed, adjusting his tie.

"I know who you are. Just didn't expect you here. You aren't supposed to be here anyway."

"I'm allowed to do just as I please I'll have you know!" The Warden huffed. He wasn't about to told what to do by his prison-guard! "I'm merely inspecting your...current duties as..."

"Lieutenant." Alice finished for him. "Do you even know what we're doing?"

The soldiers had broken their stance to stare blankly at the rather colorful and youthful Warden they weren't at all used to seeing. The Warden didn't notice them however, he was far too preoccupied with getting his point across to the abnormally defiant Alice he wasn't used to seeing.

"Oh—haha, you. Of course I know what you're doing." He nonchalantly scoffed, masking his rising agitation.

"You're preforming some sort of training, yes. For the upcoming battles we will be involved in." He nodded pointedly, hands on his hips.

"You're half right." Alice said, pointing to one of the courses. "I'm weeding out the runts of this shit litter." She firmly tapped her crop into her hand at this. An audible 'gulp' could be heard coming from most of the men she commanded. The Warden simply rolled his eyes, the same sense of forced-confidence welling over him.

"Ha! Well well then, how do you expect to see any results with a junior-high gym-class setup like this? I mean for goodness sake Alice, in the time I've stood here I've _barely_ seen any casualties-"  
He turned around, attempting to prove his point by gesturing to the nearest array of swinging axes, rings of fire, spiked-pits and various traps of viscous animals. However as he faced what only a moment ago was a field donning only a few corpses, he was greeted by a mound of bodies piled neatly beside the course.

As he finished his statement, two more men screamed their last agonizing screams; one having been chopped in half by one of the axes, the other having his limbs torn from him by a creature so mangled and gruesome the Warden could hardly begin to describe it as it tossed the remains of its latest victim to the others in the ever-growing pile. Of course he had seen, owned and had commissioned these sort of beasts to be created at his will back at SuperJail, though he couldn't place his finger on why this particular one frightened him so.

"I mean-" he cleared his throat as his voice had shifted involuntarily into a higher pitch. "I mean, this is a poor way to make an example of them, d-don't you think, Alice?"

"You designed it." Alice snorted, folding her arms and tapping her foot. She was quickly beginning to lose her patience. She flashed a glare to her ranks, and they immediately stood to attention.

"Well, I must have been in a creative slump that day." The Warden snapped back.

"Why not test it out yourself then?" Alice suggested, cocking a brow over her horn-rimmed glasses.

"Oh-ho, nonono," The Warden declined, chuckling as he waved his hands rapidly. "That sounds like something I pay you to do, Alice."

"_Lieutenant_. And, I'd consider this part of my job."

"Are you implying that I'm a 'runt'? _Alice_?"

Alice didn't respond to this, instead she strode past the row of soldiers, straight to the start of the course.

"Hold this." She grunted, shoving her riding-crop into the Warden's chest.

She gauged the distance carefully before taking a few steps back. There was a good fifteen feet between herself and the visible spiked-pit, however she sprinted at full speed only for about two meters before leaping high over the pit, catching hold of the nearly-invisible rope that dangled in the web of swinging axes. Gripping tightly to the blade-free rope, she swung in between the lethal axes, letting go just as she reached the end.

As if tripped by a sensor, a wall rose out of the ground to block her progression. Alice forced her body into a flip, pushing off the wall as it reached it's maximum height. She then landed onto the head of the decrepit creature, the heel of her stiletto spearing it in the center of its skull. The beast roared in pain, trying with all its might to retaliate before death. It tossed and rolled around, trying to knock her off. Her heel was removed and blue blood spewed out of it in an endless spray. The creature's eyes rolled back into its head as it screeched a piercing howl and it collapsed in a heap of dust. Not a drop of the beast's blood found itself onto Alice's suit as she triple-flipped through the three rings of fire that completed the first course.

She casually strutted back, running her fingers through her hair, shifting her weight from one hip to the other. The Warden couldn't manage to feign his would-be unimpressed demeanor. He was dumbfounded, absolutely awestruck. It never ceased to amaze him how she always seemed to effortlessly pull off the stunts she did. She hadn't even broken a sweat either.

"Yes...Well, obviously you've had practice at this." He commented snidely, turning his nose in the air, gingerly handing her back her crop.

"Nah, it isn't my thing to test them out. That's what they're for." She pointed to her ranks. They remained in form, though the beads of sweat started to roll down their faces a bit quicker now.

"Still, it looks far too easy for the likes of my soldiers." The Warden muttered disinterested. With his gloved hand he shined his nails on his chest.

"Go through it then." Alice shrugged

"Now now Alice-"

"_Lieutenant_."

"Whatever. It isn't like you to be so goading."

"Pussy."

"Wha-? How _dare_ you! I am not at all!"

"Prove it."

"Fine! I most certainly will!" The Warden stomped toward her, shoving his cane into her arms.

"_Hold this._" He hissed.

He stormed to the start of the course and eyed it carefully. His eyes followed one of the swinging axes as he stepped closer. He'd barely placed his foot down before a spike jutted forward, nearly piercing his shoe.

"Warden! What the _hell_ are you doing!"

The Warden froze in place, his foot had yet to be set down. He was almost too afraid to turn around.

"Good God I can't leave you alone for a fucking second without you trying to get us both killed!" The furious Future-Warden marched to his now trembling counterpart, Jared following behind.

"I was just...admiring it." The Warden responded quietly.

He very cautiously turned on one foot and set his other down on the ground. As he stepped forward a sharp '_shuuunk_' sound caused him to freeze once more. The top of his head felt unusually cold all of a sudden and as he reached up to feel it he was a little surprised to find that his hat had gone missing.

Looking up had solved this mystery as the very edge of the brim of his hat had caught on a delayed-triggered spike. It spiraled downward, ripping the edge as it was released.

"Dammit..." The Warden cursed, catching it as it fell, running his finger over the tear.

"Well you can stop admiring it right this instant. I have a job for you." The other snarled, flipping his cape over his shoulder.

"Oh boy."

"Oh come now Warden, where is your sense of fun?"

"I highly doubt whatever you have planned for me is going to be fun even in the most generous sense of the word."

The other grinned, tossing the cane to the Warden. He reached up to catch it before fearfully retracting his hand in case another wary spike decided to pop up.

"Nonsense, nonsense I've simply gone over your list a few more times and I think I might be able to substitute a few key parts in your machine."

"Great. And?"

"And," the other grabbed a hold of the Warden's shoulder dragging him back to the base, "You are going to start putting it together now."

"You really do not want me here at all do you?" The Warden chuckled, letting himself be pulled along by the other.

"Your departure could not come sooner."


	12. Chapter 12

"Stop dragging your feet, Warden!" The other screeched, yanking harsher on his counterpart's shoulder.

"I would if you'd loosen your grip on me!"

The two were now back inside SuperBase. The Warden wasn't quite sure, however, if they were on the same floor he had been before or not. The wall had opened for his Future-Self to enter as it had for him to exit. The layout was the same; white hallways, not a soul in sight. The only difference was that there were now two pairs of hurried shoes tapping on the sleek floor.

The path the other had decided to take was even more complicated and winding than when the Warden had found himself lost in the hospital-wing just moments before. It might have been because they, or rather the Future-Warden, was in such a hurry that the Warden didn't have much time to gather his bearings, that this particular trail confused him so.

"Ah, here we are." The other sighed in relief as they reached another elevator. The Warden, despite the other still keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, took the few seconds allotted to him while they waited for the lift to arrive to examine his surroundings closely, just in case he would have to come back here.

The bell chimed and the lift opened. The Warden, shoved inside first, found this ride a lot more cramped than when he had ridden it with Penna.

"All the necessary parts and supplies are in your new room." The other spoke after a few seconds of irritating silence.

"New room?"

"Yes, Jared has graciously moved your..." He paused, eying the Warden up and down for a moment. "Things... To a room closer to mine."

"Lovely. We'll be neighbors." The Warden responded, heavily rolling his eyes.

"Or if you'd prefer, you could sleep in Storage." The other said, trying to mask his sneer with a grin.

A slight chill ran up the Warden's spine and he involuntarily shuddered.

"No, no that's quite alright."

The bell chimed again and the Warden, this time, found himself being pushed rather than pulled down the hallway. This change wasn't really that preferable to either of them.

However, the Warden did prefer this floor much more. The walls were not a nauseatingly-white like before, instead a long, stretching and most likely bullet-proof pane of glass welcomed them from one side. The reddish-orange sunset shone through the glass, painting the pair in it's light. Had the day really gone by that quickly?

The two must have been on a very high floor as the view below them extended far beyond what the Warden could see. The walls surrounding SuperBase were just a thin line in the distance. He spotted the training course, the people below just tiny little specks exploding in tiny little bursts of blood.

It wasn't much longer that the two walked until they came to a tall intricately-detailed wooden door that looked quite out of place against the tiled wall. A keypad set just above the brass knob and the Future-Warden swiftly typed in the entry-code.

The door opened, inside a reddish glow from the ceiling-high windows revealed a rather large and spacious area similar to that of his old room, only much much bigger.

"Here you are, Warden." The other snapped, tossing him into his new quarters. "I have business to attend to right now, but I _will_ be back later." And with the slam of his door, the Future-Warden disappeared.

"Quaint." The Warden groaned, spotting the pile of miss-matched parts and tools set in the corner. At least he was equipped with _somewhat_ of a workstation.

After a quick flip of a light-switch he tossed off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. He was thankful he still had a bed, though he doubted he'd find the time or the ability to get a restful sleep.

He examined the blueprints of the revised-time-machine. They were neat and thorough surprisingly enough. The Warden felt the slightest bit of hope that this might actually work. Though another quick glance to the pile of parts quickly reminded him of what and _who_ he was dealing with.

He sighed, dreading this task ahead.

Absentmindedly, he began to separate the coils and cogs into smaller, more manageable piles. Soon he had them organized neatly by size, function and shape.

It really didn't matter that they were set apart, he just wanted to anything and everything _but_ put this thing together.

Shaking his head, trying to get the procrastination-itch out of his skin. He picked up the nearest screwdriver and a few hunks of metal and started to get to work.

He'd always enjoyed building and creating spectacular devises and robotics, though admittedly most of what he invented was either too extravagantly-impractical or unethical; most of the time resulting in a mixture of the two. Despite this however, plans for countless mechanisms and apparatuses continuously popped into his head every minute. He had always been like this, even when he was a child. _Especially_ when he was a child.

When he took the time to sort one idea from the other, within the hour he'd have drawn up hundreds of schematics. In his younger days he would spend entire afternoons just writing down everything and anything he could think of that might possibly function at his command.

There was absolutely no limit to his imagination, and he _would not_ deny himself the right to create any and all the beautiful, mechanical, monstrosities he could and had come up with.

This daunting task however, did not inspire any sort of creative 'spark' as it should have. This machine did not feel like his own design. He felt as though he were in school, forced to write someone else's essay. A feeling which only added to the dread of continuing on.

"You really ought to thank me you know."

The sudden voice from nowhere stunned him, he jerked up, causing the wrench to fall onto his toes. There was a quick barrage of hushed-cursing, covered up by the snickering of his Future-Self.

"And why the hell would I do that?" The Warden hissed, trying to rub out the pain in his now pulsating big toe.

"Because in the spare time I am _rarely_ afforded," The other smirked, striding casually over to a mirror hanging on the wall. He gave himself a quick look over before continuing, checking the straightness of his cape and hat.

"I have been able to devise a fail-safe plan in the event that this version of the time-machine becomes inoperable."

"It's been..." He squinted at the tiny desk-clock. "Three hours."

"And you are _quite_ welcome that I was able to _find_ that time."

"Uh-huh. What is this 'plan' of yours?"

"We use this!" The other turned to face him, pulling out of his pocket a small remote-like device similar in likeness to the blueprints of the revised-time-machine. It had a tiny screen with a few buttons varying in size underneath.

"This is made from the same parts, it's essentially just a smaller version of the machine, except it functions a little differently."

"And, how exactly is _that_ supposed to work?"

"Warden, you should know better than anyone that I- _we_ do not explain _anything_."

The Warden heaved a heavy, tiresome sigh, tapping his foot quite impatiently. The other rolled his eyes, matching his counterpart's foot-tapping.

"If anything should go wrong- hopefully not- while you pass through the time-continuum, this baby here," The other's grin quickly returned as he playfully patted his contraption. "_Should_ bring you back."

"And how-"

"If you have _properly_ assembled your part of the machine," He started through gritted teeth.

"Then the two devices will be connected you see, and if this," The other wiggled the tiny remote in his hand. "Senses any damage or anything else that might possibly- though highly unlikely- go wrong, it will simply tell the machine to bring you back to this time."

"And you developed this marvelous 'fail-safe' plan in three hours? Are you sure it's even going to work?"

"Dunno," The other shrugged. "And we'll never know unless we try it out, correct?"

"What if it kills _me_?"

"It shouldn't."

"But _what if-_"

"_It. Shouldn't._"

"_Fine_." The Warden snarled, snatching up the blueprints to his face, intentionally blocking out the view of his Future-Self.

"I'll leave you to the rest of it then, you have until morning."

Before the Warden could respond with what would have been a very enraged retort, the door had slammed shut just as he opened his mouth. It took what little strength he had left to keep himself from throwing a wrench at the door.

Grinding his teeth, swearing in between breaths, he gingerly continued his work.

The hours seemed to drag on, painfully so. He couldn't work any longer, he had to take a break. He didn't know what time it was, nor did he bother to find out for sure. The pale blue light outside told him it was obscenely early, a fact that made him groan with fatigue. He was very tired and his muscles, especially in his wounded limbs were burning with exhaustion.

He set down his screwdriver, wiping the sweat from his brow. His legs had fallen asleep from being tucked under him as he worked and provided little help to him as he struggled to stand. Taking a few moments to let the blood flow freely throughout his body, he stepped outside of his room, inhaling deeply a fresher breath of air.

Looking to both sides of him, making sure no one, especially the Future-Warden was around to object to him doing so, he decided to take a little walk to stretch out his legs. The pale-blue light shining in from the glass wall was slowly, but noticeably beginning to grow brighter. A bit of movement from below caught his attention.

A small aircraft set outside, it's propellers whirling slowly. Though there wasn't quite enough light to tell exactly what, the Warden could see it was of completely different style and color than that of the plum-colored ones he'd seen before. As far as he could make out, this one was a deep brown color with a green star on the nose. Three figures approached the vessel, two of which the Warden identified as the other and Jared.

The third however didn't look familiar to him. He squinted his eyes and leaned in to get a better focus. The figure, a female with long light-brown hair and wearing dark clothes matching the aircraft's color; began to, by the looks of it, shout at the Future-Warden.

He couldn't hear what was being said, even though he pressed his ear against the glass. It was only after examining her a few seconds more did her pointed stance, and the other Warden mimicking with his own towering shouting mannerisms, click in his mind.

"Penna?"

That's right, she was being sent off to capture that Captain.

He watched the two of them bicker, a slight smile appearing on his face. It wasn't fully apparent to him why the tension between them was so humorous. Perhaps he just enjoyed seeing his Future-Self, being the massive prick he was, so easily agitated.

The argument between the two below did not last very long. The other Warden, either having heard enough from her, or trying to make his end of the debate more concrete; shoved Penna into the aircraft and signaled for it's take-off before she, presumably, had enough time to respond.

Within seconds the deep-brown plane disappeared into the now, brighter-blue sky.

The Warden continued to watch the remaining figures, keeping a close eye on his counterpart. He must have sensed being stared at, as the other pointed up above him, shouting something to Jared before bursting into a sprint, heading straight toward the building.

The Warden jumped up, an overwhelming and skittish feeling overcame him as he scrambled back to his room. Wait, why was he trying to make such an effort not to get caught for taking a simple walk? He _was_ given 'permission' after all, was he not? No matter how he tried to argue within himself, he knew very well that his reasoning would go unheard by the other Warden.

Though his little walk relieved the numbness in his legs, the rest of his body cried out in debilitation.

There were only about thirty or so more pieces to connect. With every piece added, the heavier his eyes grew. This time, though by miracle, he noticed the series of beeping outside his door and took care to set his tools in a safe distance, for fear of dropping them again.

He turned to face his Future-Self, braced for and undeserved scolding he was sure he was about to receive.

"Alright," The Warden panted, and nonetheless surprised that the other hadn't erupted in shouting, tossing his hat on the table. "It's done, what now?"

"The hell do you mean 'what now'? Get in it of course!" The Future-Warden stomped his foot, pointing to the new machine. So much for not shouting.

"What if something goes wrong?"

"Oh dear _God-_ Just get in the _fucking _machine!"


	13. Chapter 13

"Argh! You selfish, tyrannical, maniac!" Penna screamed as she kicked the door of the shoddy aircraft. Those had been her last words to the Future-Warden before he'd pushed her so roughly into it. She growled, rubbing the back of her head, feeling a knot beginning to rise.

While considering trying to take over the little aircraft's auto-pilot, she found the pilot's seat too uncomfortable to sit in. It felt almost as though it had been stuffed with rocks. Most of the 'controls' were soon to be revealed as just for show, severely dampening her escape plan, not that she knew how to pilot _anything_ anyway. She might as well have been inside a toy plane.

Now there was nothing left for her to do but pace around the tiny cabin. She had no idea where she was and looking out provided little bearing for her. SuperBase was long-gone behind her, all that lied ahead was a vast expanse of devastated land.

"Goddammit!" She cursed, kicking the back of the seat.

"_Now now Howl,_" The voice of the other Warden echoed throughout the craft's intercom. Penna jumped back, looking for the source."_You leave much to be desired of a lady with that kind of language."_

"Don't even get me started on what _you_ leave to be desired."

There was a pause on the other end, but only for a moment.

"_Ahem, I'm going to assume that you've just said something even more ridiculously rude and if this behavior continues, Howl, I won't let you in on my little secret."_

"What? 'Assume'? Where are you?" She looked around again, not entirely sure what was going on.

"_That's right, I have a marvelous surprise! It isn't that this is all prerecorded, no no it's _much_ more clever than that._"

She held her face into her palm and exhaled with a heavy disgust. "Perfect."

After heaving another distasteful sigh, she slumped to the side, realizing her end of this fight had been lost before it had begun.

"What is it _this_ time?"

Just then, a loud, metallic, groan cried out through the body of the aircraft, causing it to tremble in the air. Penna shuddered and covered her ears, trying to block out the noise.

The shaking floor caused her to lose balance. As she fell, the aircraft jerked suddenly. A clash, like thunder erupted outside. A blaze of smoke and fire cloaked the right side and it began to seep into the cabin.

"What the hell are you doing?" She screamed in between coughs, hoping that the other would reveal details hidden in this 'surprise'.

Another thunderous groan tore inside the ship. As Penna clutched herself against the pilot's chair, she stared wide-eyed at the chunks of metal that began peeling themselves from the body of the ship. Soon the nose of the aircraft was nothing but smoldered wire-framing.

The propellers, oddly enough remained untouched by the explosions. Penna however was far too busy to ponder why that might be; tearing through compartments searching for a parachute while trying not to suffocate.

One more shudder to rock the entire craft. She was forced against the back wall. A little trap door popped open. Inside the child-sized compartment the walls were padded with a soft, feathery material. A helmet with a note attached set in the very back.

Bewildered, she crawled inside, shutting the door. A light _click_ signified it had locked securely. Though _how_ securely had yet to be determined.

Cramped inside this padded space a little light illuminated the elegantly, yet mockingly hand-written note.

"I_f you've managed to withstand the sheer creative ingenious that my little surprise contained, you've probably figured out by now, or more likely you haven't..."_

Penna, so very tempted to crumple the note right then, placed the helmet cautiously on her head and strapped it tightly to her chin. She continued to read on, bracing herself against one of the sides.

"I_'ve designed this vessel so that it will appear to those insurgents that one of their carrier ships has malfunctioned, resulting in its destruction. They will soon be receiving a fabricated distress signal. You should be thanking me Howl. I'm having them rush right to your aid after all! Granted you survive the crash that is... –W _"

Penna suddenly felt her stomach rise into her throat. She heard another clatter of explosion outside, though muffled by the padded walls of her enclosure.

The aircraft was starting to lose altitude and fast. She clutched her helmet to her head and began to whimper.

'_If he was so keen to kill me why couldn't the coward have done it face to face..._'

Her body was pressed against the walls as the ship plummeted downward. She clenched her eyes shut and pounded on her chest as if to keep her heart from hopping out as it felt as though it surely would.

She was shaking just as much as the aircraft was. Extending her leg, she tried her best to brace herself. It didn't help keep her in place much as she was continuously tossed around.

Falling deeper into a panic she curled herself into a ball of anxiety and hyperventilation. She tugged on her helmet even harder, wishing that by some miracle she would make it out of this alive.

The essentially dismantled aircraft remained in the air for only a few seconds more, the propellers whirling faster and faster to make it's designated crash as smooth as possible. They sputtered in sharp, jerking seizures before cutting out completely.

The wire nose of the ship was first to meet the ground. It tore into the earth, creating a wake of dust and debris as it skidded deeper into the dirt. The body of the plane smacked down hard, breaking it open. Chunks of panel flew off in all directions catching in the ground. Penna remained curled into a ball, too afraid to move or open her eyes. She was still trembling and not entirely sure if it was just her or the aircraft as well.

She remained huddled up for a few minutes more. Her entire body felt battered and broken. She gingerly extended her leg. Her muscle burned from being tucked in so tightly. She pushed on the tiny door with her foot, expecting..._hoping_ that it would open. When it didn't give right away she retracted her leg and burst into a panicked-sob.

Penna was overcome with so many conflicting emotions. She didn't regret having said what she said that got her into this mess; not entirely as least. And the more she cried the more confusing her emotions got.

Half of her wished she had just let the other Warden kill her in the very beginning. Pleading for her life like that...what life did she have to hold onto? Was it really worth so much to cling to, to suffer servitude under _him_?

The other half, the half that was screaming inside her, telling her to get up and fight back was wishing just as hard as the half that regretted, for a chance to see him again; to bash his face in. Make him writhe just as she had been reduced into doing.

Just then, the door opened with a slight _pop_. A wave of smoke-scented air and light bathed her, beckoning her to crawl out. She kept a tight hold on her helmet as she slithered out of the compartment.

The entire ship had been destroyed. The center of the floor looked as though it had landed on a bomb. Rocks and various sorts of rubble poked though the metal. The front half of the ship had contorted within itself. Broken wires and shattered glass littered what was left of the inside.

She slid her helmet off and let it drop to the floor. She was too distracted surveying the damage to hear the roaring engine of an armored-truck that slowly approached.

A harsh, blasting noise from the truck's horn, almost as loud as the explosions shook her violently out of her trance. Frantically, she dove into the padded crawlspace and snatched up the other's note, stuffing it down her shirt.

The camouflaged truck crept closer, examining the wreckage. The deeply-tinted windows prevented anyone from seeing its contents.

Penna stumbled out of the devastated ship, her limbs felt limp and didn't quite want to obey her. The anxiety she tried so hard to suppress as the ship was crashing returned all at once as the truck came to a halt. It rumbled menacingly, Penna could feel the stares burning into her through the tinted windows. Her instinct was to turn and run right then but she knew very well she wouldn't get far, especially with nowhere to run.

She gasped involuntarily as the truck door opened. A black steel-toed boot kicked it the rest of the way. Her heart stopped for an instant as the surly-looking man stepped out. He wore and outfit similar to her, except for a few decorations on his chest, and a long belt of bullets that wrapped around his torso and waist several times.

The man glared fiercely through her. He waited for a moment before approaching however. He wanted to study her actions, as if to pick apart every little detail that might, and probably would give her away.

"What's your name?" His booming voice echoed viciously in the air.

She was at a loss for words. Her mind searched for something, anything to say.

"Penn—nnelope." She squeaked out. "Penelope. Who are you?" She inhaled deeply, trying to add a bit of toughness in her voice.

"We'll get into that later. Are you hurt?" His question didn't convey much concern. If it had, it was covered up by the sheer ferocity of his voice.

"A little shook up, obviously, but I'll live." Penna brushed her shoulder off, wincing at her tender, bruised skin. "I take it you got my distress signal?"

The man didn't answer. Instead he looked behind his shoulder and motioned for the driver of the truck to come out.

His much younger partner that stepped out looked like a far friendlier version of the man that interrogated Penna with his glare. He too had on dark clothes that matched her own. She glanced at the youngster for only a moment before returning the surly-soldier's 'concerned' expression.

"Hey! Cordin! What did you find?"

'Cordin' rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. As the youngster came closer he flung out his hand and hit the boy rather roughly in the shoulder.

"Ow...Jesus..." The boy hissed, trying to rub the twinge out of his arm.

"Hi!" He grinned cheekily, ignoring the glare of disapproval coming from Cordin.

"Name's Rhod. And _this_," he nudged Cordin playfully, quickly retracting his arms in case of a retaliation. "Fun-loving sack of happiness is my brother. Holy cow! How in the hell did you survive that crash? As soon as we got the may-day, we – _I _sped up so's we could get a better look and whoa man, let me tell you it was a beauty! Bits of metal flying everywhere! _He _thought for sure you'd jumped _loooong_ before the engine cut out. I said 'nah, Cordin they're still in there man, we gotta help 'em.' And sure enough here you are! Seriously though, how in the hell did you survive that?"

The kid's mouth moved at about a mile a minute. It took Penna a good second just to keep up with with him.

"Uh..."

"Rhod! There is a protocol to follow! You don't just pop up and get all friendly like with a complete stranger! _Especially_ strangers that just fall right out of the sky like _this one_ did." Another piercing glare from Cordin chilled Penna to the bone. She was so afraid now that any move she made or word she uttered would betray her identity.

"You worry too much-"

"I worry _just enough_. Alright, 'Pennnnelope' what were you doing in one of our carriers?"

Penna fought the immense urge to flinch as Cordin spoke. She fought even harder to come up with something to tell him, and quick.

"I was on my way to pick up some supplies from Resistance-Capital-Four." She breathed a sigh of relief inside upon remembering _their_ name for _their_ bases.

"Were you now? And you spoke to the Captain about this did you? Who is your commanding officer?" His questions were lighting-fast, giving Penna little time to devise her story.

She didn't know which question would be wisest to answer first. She took a deep breath, forcing herself not to stammer as she spoke.

"My commanding officer _was_ the late Sergeant Olivander. He was the one who spoke to the Captain about the supplies." Penna searched her memories for those of the Sergeant. She had interrogated him quite recently, though he had been one of many that did not survive. His memories had proven very useful to the other Warden however, revealing the location and layout of Enemy-base...Resistance-Capital-Four.

"The 'late' Sergeant?" Cordin's eyes widened with disbelief.

"Yes, he was captured by the Warden a few weeks ago. Most of our men did not survive the attack. Only a few of our carriers were functional and, now...well, we're down by one."

Cordin weighed this information in his mind, trying to make sense of it himself. Penna wasn't sure if she had made herself seem believable or not, though she felt deep down that she was going to be caught very soon.


	14. Chapter 14

"Listen here! I have been up all night putting this damn thing together, I am exhausted and practically starving! I am _not_ going anywhere without having a sandwich and a nap! Preferably in that order!" The Warden stomped his foot, throwing his fists down to his sides.

The other exhaled heavily, trying to expel his ever-growing anger in the air, as if it needed help making its essence apparent. He pressed a button on the remote in his hands. The door to the machine flung open in a harsh, swift swing almost mimicking the other's lack of patience. The Warden jumped a little at the sudden sound.

His counterpart tossed the remote in his hands a few times, glaring through his amber glasses.

"Warden, _Warden_. You will be more than able to eat and sleep _on your own_ time," His voice quickly sunk from a nonchalant tone to an infuriating one rapidly.

He raised his knee, gripping his remote with a crushing fist. The Warden's eyes widened and he instinctively shielded his face with his arms.

"_In your own time!_"

The other's foot slammed into his stomach as he roared, knocking the wind out of the Warden and sending him flying into the time-machine. The door crashed down, locking tightly.

The Future-Warden exchanged his scowl for a grin as he pressed one final button on his remote. The machine erupted in a deep rumbling growl, shaking the entire floor. Bits of spare metal and tools crashed to the floor, adding to the cacophony growing in the room. In a burst of eerie-green light the new time-machine, and nearly unconscious Warden flashed out of his future-self's existence.

The other rubbed his now aching stomach, almost regretting being so forceful. He cleared his throat, giving the Warden's former room a good look over. He was almost waiting for the machine to return any second. Waiting, but _not_ wanting. He turned to leave the disarrayed room, but not before kicking aside a hunk of metal.

"Good riddance."

The Warden rubbed his eyes feverishly, nearly blinded and completely disoriented by the specks of light that blotched his vision. He clutched his stomach, feeling increasingly nauseous, and as much as he tried not to think about how the sever side-effects of vomiting in this tiny area, on himself would effect him did not do well to ease his sickness.

It took a few seconds of dry- heaving before he realized that the time-machine had arrived at it's destination, or indeed had stopped moving all together.

He slowly crawled up to meet the control panel. Confusion swallowed him as he looked out through the rounded windows.

He didn't quite understand the scene in front of him. He was definitely back at SuperJail and that much was certain and alone was enough to overwhelm him with relief happiness. However, he didn't appear to be in his time-machine Room, or maybe he was and had arrived a little later in his own time. The room wasn't in the original, tidy state it had been when he left just yesterday. There were scorch marks on the floor and walls behind him, like an explosion had occurred. Even the desk that had been pushed back was a little charred.

He searched around the inside of the machine, trying to find a reason not to get out of it. He gingerly ran his fingers over the monitor placed in the center of the control panel. From what he could tell, everything was still functioning properly, but doubt still hung above his head.

The Warden rubbed his face with both hands and shook his head. He searched for the button to open the door and braced himself, expecting it to open in the same impatient manner it had before.

The door flung open, rocking the machine. The Warden turned around in his seat, extending one leg out in the open, testing the ground with one foot to make sure it was safe, or actually there. After tapping it with his foot a few times he felt a bit braver to place both feet outside. He gently jumped out and landed with a light plop.

"J-Jared?" The Warden whimpered.

He tip-toed through the room, stepping cautiously over a few scattered papers. He looked around once more, finding himself at the edge of the room. He poked his head out the door, looking from left to right. A very familiar, very colorful hallway was displayed in front of him. A huge, wonderful sigh of relief came from him as he concluded in his mind that he was, without a doubt back at SuperJail.

"Jared!" He called a little more courageously. He listened for the sound of nervous, shuffling feet tripping their way down the hall. He waited, ears perked, hoping with every ounce that his assistant heard him.

"JARED!" He called once more, the heavy cloud of doubt looming over him. He silently wished he'd had some of those button-transmitters his future-self had. He didn't really have the energy right now to shout.

Just as he stepped out into the open, the sound of loose papers rustling echoed throughout. The Warden, unthinking, sprinted as fast as he could to the source of the sound.

"Jared! Jared! Is that you? You have no idea how bad an idea this whole thing was!"

Jared tossed up his stack of papers, sending them flying in all directions. The Warden leaped onto him, knocking the poor, startled man over.

"What a nightmare I've been through!" The Warden rubbed his face against Jared's large head, practically smothering him.

"S-Sir! You're b-back!" Jared piped, his voice strained from being crushed.

"You won't believe what happened to me! As soon as I arrived these two guys just threw me onto this plane and then out of nowhere_ I_ show up, well you know, _future-me_, and the bastard kicked me off the plane and shot me! He _shot_ me Jared, twice!" The Warden pointed to his leg.

"W-what happen-" Jared stopped mid-sentence, his voice seemed to seize in his throat.

"Jared don't interrupt! Anyway, and then these rebels started attacking and SuperJail was destroyed! _Destroyed_! J-Jared?"

Jared remained motionless, his eyes wide with surprise. The Warden eased off of him, but his assistant remained completely still, almost frozen. The Warden gently poked his forehead, expecting him to come-to, but something wasn't right. He couldn't feel anything under his finger. In fact it seemed to sink right through his head.

"Jared? C'mon buddy... Wake up." He poked him again, and again his finger went right through. He tried shaking him, but his hands didn't seem to have anything to grip onto.

Suddenly Jared's body flashed, fading in and out. The Warden jumped back frantically looking around for some sort of help. Jared's image began to fade quicker, like his image was being shown from a broken projector.

"W-What's happening?" The Warden shouted, his voice sounded strange to him however. It felt as though a crushing silence had fallen on him. He couldn't hear any ambiance, not the echo in his voice or even his footsteps. Taking no time to think, he darted past the now transparent Jared.

The walls around the Warden were beginning to show a similar effect, all around him his surroundings began to disappear,. The way up ahead of him seemed to be engulfed in a white, silent light. The floors and walls were being consumed, matching the Warden's panicked pace. He hastily turned around, tripping over his feet. He scrambled himself upright, feeling the void behind him getting closer and closer.

He darted for the time-machine Room, passing where Jared's body lay, praying that the machine remained intact. Just a few more feet lied ahead of him. He'd never run this fast before in his life. He didn't dare look behind him for fear of slowing down.

He jumped inside of the room, the light behind growing fiercer with every passing second. Thankfully the machine still remained. He collided with the seat, the door slamming shut as he clung to his chair with one arm. He pressed a series of buttons, hoping that one of them would take him out of here.

The machine kick-started up, rumbling violently. The white light began to shroud the inside of the room. Everything in it's path seemed to be drawn to it. The papers on the floor, even the desk was sucked into it's wake.

The Warden continued to press buttons rapidly, his heart racing just as rapid. All at once the white light in front of him became the eerie green shining from the machine. He tightened his grip on the seat and clenched his eyes shut.

The next few seconds to him felt like centuries. His thoughts were drowned out by his own whimpering. He wasn't able to hear the furious pounding on the rounded glass windows.

"Warden! _Warden_! For fucks sake _answer_!"

The Warden shot up out of his seat, smashing his hat. The Future-Warden gripped the door and almost ripped it open, though it hardly needed help.

"What the hell did you do!"

"I-I didn't do anything! Everything just started to-" The Warden felt himself being gripped by his collar, his future-self began to shake him.

"What. Did you. Do!"

The Warden pushed his palm forward, smacking the other right in the nose. The other released him, sputtering swears as he clutched his face. The Warden huffed, punching the inside of his hat to straighten it.

"I told you! I don't know what happened!" He placed his hat back on his head, tugging on it firmly. He rubbed his now sore palm.

His future-self, nose and upper lip now covered in blood hissed as he tried to wipe most of it away.

The two glared at each other. One, demanding answers with his furious eyes. The other, bracing himself for another attack.

"What. Happened." The other pulled out and twisted the end of a handkerchief and stuck it in his nose to catch the blood still dribbling on his lip.

"Everything was fine at first then it all just started to disappear! There was this light...thing swallowing up everything, even Jared! H-he was fine at and then he just froze! That's when the light came. I'm lucky to still even be here!"

The other raised a brow and quickly pushed one of his medals.

"Jared, are you still with us?" He lifted his finger, waiting a response.

_"Of course sir." _The static, gruff voice of Future-Jared replied.

The two breathed a sigh of relief inside themselves.

"Good, that is all for now."

The Warden glanced over at the machine, then back to his future-self.

"What happens now?" He asked, and just as the other opened his mouth to respond with what undoubtedly would have been a very harsh and unreasonable reply, he held his hand up to keep him quiet.

"Don't think for one second that I am getting back in this thing. No chance in hell."

The other exhaled his long-held, rage-filled breath. He rubbed the deepening lines on his forehead firmly, continuing to sigh.

"Obviously, you didn't put it together right!"

"_Obviously_, you gave me shitty parts to work with!"

"I gave you the best I had to offer, Warden. It is _not_ my fault _any _of this had happened, it's all on you!"

"Fine! Alright! I admit it! This was a huge mistake, there are you happy now? Good, now that that's out of the way what are _we_ going to do about this? I can't stay here forever and have absolutely no intention of doing so!"

The other clenched his fists, raising one to the Warden's eye-level. "We'll just have to..." He bit his lip, not wanting to accept the gravity of the situation. What other choice was there though? "Wait...Wait until we get more supplies."

The Warden held his face in his hands, shaking his head in a slow rhythmic motion.

"Why...?" He muttered into his palms.

Just then, a strange beeping noise began to sound from one of the other's medals, unlike the ones that sounded when someone was contacting him. As if he'd been waiting all along for this to happen, his bloodied mouth stretched into a menacing grin.

"What's that about?" The Warden asked, a little put off by his sudden change in mood.

"With any luck, a _lesson _has just been _learned_."


	15. Chapter 15

There was little to distract herself from the tension that swarmed inside the armored truck as Penna and her 'escorts' drove to the Capital. Even with Rhod's constant moving mouth, which was starting to weigh heavily on her nerves; her fear of blowing her cover only seemed to grow with every passing second.

"And then I took this gun that I picked up from a dead guy, right? And I looked right in that robot's face or whatever and said, 'alright buddy your time is up.' Then guess what happened!"

Penna rolled her shoulders in an awkward shrug. She could tell that Cordin, by his ever-tightening grip on the steering wheel, was quickly becoming more and more annoyed with his younger brother's endless energy.

"I-I don't know, what happened?"

"Well, I was gonna blow its head off, but a missile beat me to it... Even after I said my cool line and everythin'..."

She didn't know whether to laugh or console him.

"Oh uh, well...darn, I guess." Another awkward shrug.

"Yeah, well there's plenty more out there, you'll get your change again soon." Cordon replied. The tone of his voice must have been sharp enough to for his brother to get the hint as Rhod settled down somewhat.

"So how long have you been with us Penelope?"

Cordon shifted his gaze to her, no doubt reading her every expression. She could feel his stare, but kept her eyes on Rhod, trying to come up with something plausible and quick.

"Well, um..." She started, realizing there was hardly any conviction in her voice. She tried using her obvious reluctance to her advantage.

"I'm a new recruit, I guess. My home was destroyed in the last civilian attack and-"

"That was a month ago." Cordon bitterly snapped. His glare narrowed, continuing to search her over. "You're telling me they let a rookie pilot an air-carrier?"

Penna forced an inaudible gulp, quickly thinking of a plausible lie. "My father was a pilot, I've been around planes my entire life. Though I admit I have little experience with carriers."

"Obviously."

Penna furrowed her brow. He was not going to make this easy for her, that was for sure.

"Oh lay off her Cordin. Doncha think she's had enough for today?"

_'Yeah Cordin, lay off me.'_

"Still, sounds a little odd to me."

"Well after our Capital was destroyed there wasn't much choice. Everyone else who could pilot them were either dead or dying." Penna somehow had managed to muster up enough courage to fire her own glare at him.

Cordin paused, taking a moment to think.

"I see." He replied, trying not to portray even the slightest hint of defeat in his voice. "We're almost there."

"Ugh, finally. I'm starving." Rhod said, rubbing his stomach.

For the next few minutes the three of them continued on in silence, which to Rhod had been quite the chore.

Penna leaned into the window, spotting the many guards that were lined up along the walls of the base. She counted sixteen just on the one side. If it had been at all possible, her heart seemed to sink even further.

_'I am so going to die...'_

The truck slowly crept up to the fierce, barbed-wire gate. A pair of guards, their guns at the ready, approached each side as it came to a stop.

"Name and station!" One of them demanded.

"Corporal Cordin with Privates Rhod and..." Cordin glanced over to Penna with his same distrusting stare. "Penelope, checking in."

The guard peered into the truck, giving it a thorough look-through. Penna forced herself to push back the instinct to duck behind the seat in front of her. He nodded to the others and saluted, signaling the okay for them to enter. The gate split in two, each side disappearing into the walls of the base. They quickly rejoined just as the truck passed, the guards turning back to their posts.

The inside of the Capital was lined with rows and rows of various storage sheds, air-crafts and other armored trucks poked through their respective exits, some of them looked to be housing units. A few soldiers could be seen tinkering with a visibly damaged truck. Rhod leaned out the window, waving happily to them as they passed.

"Doesn't matter how urgent your mission is," Cordin said as he pulled into a nearby shed. "No one gets to see the Captain without approval. So you're just gonna have to wait."

"And if you think my brother is bad, _just wait_ until you meet him." Rhod whispered to Penna just before sliding out of the truck. She replied with her own hushed, nervous chuckle, almost afraid to get out herself.

"Who do I get approval from?"

Cordin raised a brow, folding his arms across his chest, a tiny smirk appeared on his sharp face.

"_Oh._"

"Eh, don't worry," Rhod shrugged, rubbing his shoulders against Penna. "We'll put in a good word for ya."

Cordin cleared his throat roughly, his smirk now nonexistent.

"So long as you stay out of the way and where I can keep my eye on you."

"Oh _please_, what harm can I do?" Penna scoffed, momentarily forgetting her position in this situation. She quickly reminded herself, offering him an innocent smile.

Cordin, unfazed by her not completely apparent facade, cocked his brow once more. She remained resilient, unfaltering with her smile.

He was just about to say something before a loud, startling trumpet interrupted him, sounding throughout the base, ringing sharply through the various speakers that stood posted.

"Oh yes! Dinner time!" Rhod cheered, taking a hold of her wrist. "C'mon Penelope! You can sit next to me!" He jerked on her too quick for her to protest. He had quite the grip too, she felt her circulation being cut off rather rapidly.

The two ran, or rather, Penna was dragged to the mess hall, Cordin following behind. Despite being yards in front of him, she could still feel his stare burning the back of her neck.

Rhod, acting as somewhat of a tour-guide, showed her all around the mess hall before actually allowing her to get her food. As if there was much to show her.

He grabbed her a tray, along with his own and started piling them high with what looked no more appetizing than the standard slop SuperBase's soldiers were fed. Barely giving her time to grab something to drink she felt herself again being whisked away by the ever excited young man.

The two took their seats. Penna felt more out of place than she had ever felt before in her life, especially with the few glances that came from the other soldiers filling their trays up. Thankfully, Cordin was still distracted with finding himself something eat while she tried to think of how to phrase her question to Rhod.

"Can you get me in to see the Captain?" She asked, taking a small sip of her cup of water.

Rhod, having taken a rather large mouthful, attempted to mutter something but bits of corn spewed out. He quickly covered his mouth, trying to swallow as quick as he could.

"'Fraid not... Only Cordin can give the okay. He'll come around soon though. He's only actin' like a hard-ass 'cause he doesn't know you. He's like that with everyone. What's so important you gotta see the Captain about again?" He took another mouthful, smaller this time.

"Well, My original intent was to get a shipment of supplies, but-"

"Yer thip crathed?"

"Er, yeah. Now, I'm thinking... Maybe I could get a replacement carrier along with the supplies we need." She couldn't look him in the eye while she spoke. Something odd had come over her recently, and she did not like it one bit.

"Wow, well that is kind of steep, but seein' as how your Capital was attacked I don't see why we couldn't give ya somethin'. Then again, I ain't the one in charge. But still, we gotta stick together ya know, especially now that it seems more and more of us are gettin' picked off."

"Right..." Penna nodded, feeling her stomach beginning to churn. If she had any appetite, it was surely gone now.

"You okay? You're not lookin' so hot there Penelope. Then again if I survived a crash like that I'd probably look like hell too, heh." Rhod patter her gently on the back. She nodded lightly, chuckling a bit.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Say, where's the bathroom around here?"

"Oh," Rhod put down his fork to offer her direction. "It's outside. It's the...one...two... third shed on the left."

Penna took one look at her food, her stomach gurgled even more with nausea. She pushed her tray next to his, taking the last sip of her water before getting up.

"You can have mine, I'm really not hungry right now. Be back in a bit."

As she made her move to leave she turned around and offered a smile to the young man who graciously accepted the offer with a nodding head and open mouth.

"Um, thanks for...saving me."

Rhod attempted to mumble something along the lines of 'no problem', but found his speech had been replaced with chunks of food.

As she reached the door, a firm grip on her shoulder kept her from touching the knob.

"Where are you going?" The fierce voice of Cordin echoed from behind.

"To the bathroom, why?"

He instantly released his grip, somehow feeling he'd crossed a boundary, although his expression conveyed otherwise.

"Just wanting to make sure you aren't sneaking off anywhere you shouldn't be."

"That's nice and all, but if you don't mind I really need to go now." She'd forgotten again her tone of voice, but didn't bother playing it off with another smile. Cordin just nodded, gesturing for her to leave.

Outside, Penna counted the sheds, relieved and in all honesty a little surprised that Rhod's directions were precise. Upon entering the bathrooms, which made a public outhouse look like luxury washroom, she quietly checked the stalls, hoping no one who might further question her was present. She heaved a long and heavy sigh of relief seeing that she was alone. Shutting herself into a stall she dug into her shirt and pulled out the Future-Warden's crumpled note. She tore it into tiny, flush-able pieces and cursed under her breath as they went down.

She sat down on the floor, facing the toilet just in case she wouldn't be able to hold back the rising bile in her stomach. All at once her fatigue struck. She leaned her head back against the stall door, feeling the blood pulsate in her limp arms and legs. She felt so anxious, so nervous, frightened and above all else exhausted. Just as Penna felt her eyes begin to close, an all too familiar beeping noise sounded quietly from a button she didn't even realize she had on her shirt.

She quickly cupped it with her hands and lurched forward, almost hitting her head on the porcelain.

"Are you _trying _to get me killed!" She hissed into her cupped hands.

_"Oh, I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" _The cocky voice from the other Warden, though coming through much quieter than normal through the tiny speaker, tore through her ears.

"Yes _this is_ a _bad time_! Someone could come in here any second!"

_"Well then Howl, for your sake your report had better be quick."_

She scrunched herself down on the floor, checking once again for signs of anyone entering. So far the coast was clear and she couldn't hear anyone outside.

"Alright, they're guarded. Heavily. I'd say about thirty strong just watching the gate. I only had time to count the one side, so I'd prepare to face more than thirty. They have guns. Lots of them. Airships and armored trucks too."

_"And what of our lovely friend Mr. Byron?"_

"I haven't seen him yet...And I have to get 'approval' before they'll even let me get close."

_"Do they suspect you?"_

"Only one so far. Listen, I..." She froze, thinking she heard a door open, only to realize it was her imagination. "I'm going to need a distraction to get anywhere. I-I'll let you know where their weakest points are when I find out..."

_"I might be able to manage that. If you say the magic word that is."_

She groaned, knocking her palm into her face. "...Please."

_"See Howl? Isn't this fun? I know how much you hate it here, so be glad you have an __opportunity to experience life outside of my wonderful world. That _is _what you've been wanting for so long, isn't it?"_

Penna clenched her fist, half-tempted to rip the button out all together.

"Eat a bag of dicks."


	16. Chapter 16

"_That _certainly went well." The Warden snickered loudly as Penna's transmission ended.

"You just be thankful I cannot kill _you _as I'd like to yet either." His future-self snarled back.

The Warden rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. _I'm _going to bed." He'd already begun taking his jacket off and was making his way toward the now very dusty mattress.

His future-self; unable to form a coherent sentence, sputtered his usual assortment of swears and curses while the Warden pulled the sheets over him, tucking his head under a pillow to hopefully block out whatever nonsense the other would shout at him.

"Fine!" He screamed. Chucking his remote furiously at his counterpart, who no doubt felt it's force remained motionless.

"Enjoy your little nap while you can and don't think you'll get any help from me reassembling this _goddamned _contraption!"

The Warden winced a tiny bit as the slam of his door shook the entire room. He could still hear the other shouting obscenities as he stomped to his office.

Despite his growing hunger, the Warden was able to ignore his growling stomach as his exhaustion took hold of him. It was only a matter of minutes before he was sound asleep.

The other however, could not seem to relax himself as easily as his past self could. A fact that only increased his tension and caused his anger to rise higher and higher with every second he thought about it.

Bursting into his office, he unclasped the straps on his helmet and threw it on the floor. The spike atop it caught in the plum-colored carpet, ripping a small tear thankfully going unnoticed by the Future-Warden.

He stomped to his desk. He inhaled deeply, running his fingers through his hair and taking a moment to examine the array of clutter and odd papers before releasing his held breath with a growl, sweeping everything off his desk in a fury of flying papers, pencils and coffee mugs.

"Dammit!" he cursed as a few sheets of his monogrammed stationary spiraled around his head.

He stepped back to survey the destruction of his outburst and absentmindedly began to smile as his finger instinctively glazed over the button that would have paged Penna. Realizing just before pressing it down that he would not be able to order her to clean up, or indeed blame her for his mess, he bent down to pick up a coffee mug.

He glared at it, squeezing it with a crushing grip as though it had been mocking him and the lack of control over himself. He considered chucking it against the window, but decided that the wisest thing was to set it down nicely where it belonged. He inhaled again, rubbing his temples feverishly, as if he could somehow massage his problems out of his skull.

Exhaling, he felt the slightest bit calmer now; he'd had his tantrum and now it was time to get back to business.

"Jared!" The other hissed into one of his medals.

_"Yes sir?"_

"Wake _him_ up in an hour or two and put him to _some sort_ of work. I'll be dammed if _I _am going to rest around here and not feel the benefit from it."

There was a pause on Jared's end.

_"What do you want me to do with him sir?"_

"Argh! I don't care! Just make him do _something!_ Have him help you around, I don't give a crap! If I can't relax around here he _sure as hell_ isn't going to!"

_"Yes sir, I'll take care of it."_

The Future-Warden huffed once more, and with his hands on his hips, began to step over the various mess that was littered around his desk. He'd regretted throwing the fit he had, especially without having the satisfaction of forcing Penna to clean it up for him. He shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck.

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide, as if he'd just remembered something very important. Now he was looking for a particular piece of schematics and he tore through a pile of papers to find it.

Hidden under the odd scribbled-down note he'd written earlier was a drawing of sorts. His smile returned as he held up this piece of paper to the light. His eyes followed the "X"-shaped design hastily-colored in a deep graphite. Quickly he scrambled to find something to write with, along with a clean sheet of paper.

Sitting at his desk he began to copy what was drawn in a more detailed manner, adding measurements and descriptions around the edges of the design. He would pause for a moment to consider what more he could add to this blueprint of sorts, his lips would then curl in a vile grin as he continued to jot down the functions running through his mind.

Taking a few seconds to properly shade in the bigger, cleaner and more detailed version of his drawing; with a furrowed, concentrated brow the other Warden looked back and forth between the draft design and the completed one. He was indeed very satisfied with what he'd just come up with and forgot all about his previous ill-mood.

He pushed one of his medals again, eying his newest masterpiece, his twisted grin continuing to widen.

_"Herr Varden?"_Came the thick and choking German accent from the tiny speaker.

"Doctor, I've just come up with something..._exquisite_. I'll need your help putting it together. Oh! And find Jailbot for me too would you please? We haven't got a moment to lose."


	17. Chapter 17

"_Hnng..._" The Warden groaned sleepily, feeling himself being patted awake by the future-self of his assistant.

"Get up sir. I have a job for you." Jared said sternly, though not exactly commanding in his tone.

The Warden replied with a very annoyed and disapproving scowl. He was not at all a fan of being told what to do by his employees, future-counterparts or not.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Jared." he grumbled into his pillow, tucking it tightly to his face, muffling his groggy voice. "_Five more minutes._"

Jared, although having become the pinnacle of patience itself over the years, rolled his eye and yanked the covers off the Warden.

"What the hell!" The Warden reached behind him, searching for his blankets only to find they'd been tossed on the floor. He grumbled again with defeat.

"If this were my time, I'd _fire you_ so fast it'd make your _giant head_ spin." He hissed, rubbing his eyes from under his glasses.

"Yes, but it's not." Future-Jared replied, his expression showing no signs of the worry and panic or even offense it would have shown in the earlier days of his employment.

"You're going to be spending your time with me today. And since _my_ assistant is away at the moment, I am very much in need of the help."

The Warden only replied with a yawn and a long stretch of his limbs, curling his toes. He heaved himself off the bed and curled his upper lip in disgust at the tiny, annoyingly-authoritative man.

His arm and leg were feeling much better now, his stitches had already begun to melt away. Though looking at the small scars that started to form only reminded him of the incident. A sudden gurgle echoed throughout the room, taking his mind away from his injuries and turning his attention to his now very empty stomach.

"Ugh, is it so out of the question to find _something_ to eat in this place, or do I have to wait for the _'errand-girl'_ to bring that back too?" he groaned, rubbing his stomach.

Jared, who had now begun to tap his foot irritably, looked the disheveled man up and down.

"I'll have something made for you when we get to the surveillance room, now come on." Jared commanded firmly, taking a grip on the Warden's yellow sleeve. He rolled his eyes and followed without too much of a physical fuss.

He seemed to be getting himself dragged and pushed along quite a lot lately. Complaining otherwise didn't help him much either.

The two made their way down the corridors; the white surroundings, combined with his roaring hunger was beginning to give him a migraine. And on top of everything else he'd been through, in the back of his mind, the part that wasn't wracked by the bright fluorescent lights and sterile-white walls, he managed to find it a bit humorous to check that off a list he was bitterly keeping track of. It just gave him the motivation to urge his former-assistant ahead.

It was a short trip. At least compared to the long 'walk' his Future-self had pushed him along. The two came to a sudden stop, Jared punching in the code to unlock the gray, metal door. The inside of the room expanded quite vastly, it's walls were rows and rows of monitors displaying various live feeds, as well as maps from all around SuperBase and it's sister-bases.

The Warden's smile returned lightly as he examined the shiny screens. He clapped his hands upon finding Alice on the training field. The camera would pan around to show a view of the training course and those who'd failed to pass it before returning to a view of Alice chastising those that remained.

Jared took his seat at an elongated desk littered with many buttons of various sizes and colors, each labeled neatly with it's corresponding monitor. He picked up a partially-smoked cigar and lit it with a match he'd pulled out from his pocket.

"Find a seat, class is just about to start." He chuckled through a cloud of thick smoke.

The Warden wrinkled his nose, waving a hand in front of his face, staving off the urge to cough.

"Do you have to do that here? At least open a window or something." He snarled lowly. Jared only shrugged and blew his smoke in the other direction. Didn't help the matter much, in fact the smell of it only made his headache worse.

"Ugh, fine whatever. What am I supposed to be helping you with exactly?"

Jared took a slow inhale on the last inch of his cigar before extinguishing it in a brass ashtray, filling the room with yet another nauseating cloud of smoke.

"We're going to be examining the layout of enemy-base-four." He replied flatly, pointing his stubby finger to a monitor flashing in the very top row.

It was hard to tell, at least to the Warden, exactly what they were looking at as the topographic view had been graphed from a very high position. One solitary green dot could be seen within the cluster of red dots that seemed to swarm around it as it paced along the map.

"That is Miss Howl's current position." Jared pointed out. The Warden replied with an annoyed cough.

"_And?_"

"_And,_ we're using her current position to map the layout of the base, got it?"

"Not really, no." He replied blankly, kicking his feet up on the desk, leaning back in his chair.

"How is this helping you? Seems like a one-man job to me."

"Alright fine, I don't really need the help; but it's obvious you can't really be trusted to wander around on your own." Jared said smirking over his shoulder. "I don't like this situation any more than you do sir." he added.

"Hmph. _No respect_ at all in this place." He rocked his foot back and forth, looking up at the ceiling. He occupied himself with counting the ceiling tiles as Future-Jared busied himself with pressing various buttons, writing down different coordinates and other bits of information about the maps he viewed.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Jared said after a moment of teeth-grinding silence.

"Hm?" the Warden yawned, contemplating taking a nap, or rather finishing the one he'd desperately wanted to take earlier. He'd yet to receive his promised food, a fact that just added fuel to his already bitter mood.

"Miss Howl can take care of herself."

"I- Who said I was worried?" He spat, leaping forward in his seat. "I don't really care what happens as long as I get what I need to get the hell out of here."

"Yes, of course sir." Jared responded shortly, his attention focused on that tiny green dot.

"Hmm. They seem to be separating themselves now." Jared murmured to himself, jotting down a quit note of what he observed. "They must have just finished a rally or a meal."

"Speaking of that, since you seem to be _oblivious_ of the _blatantly obvious_ fact that _I'm starving_, I could really use a meal _myself_." the Warden pouted, leaning forward in his chair with arms tightly folded across his chest.

Jared rolled his eye again and reached under the desk to pull out a plastic-wrapped halved sandwich he'd been saving for his own lunch. He'd just get something later, he reasoned with himself. Anything to stop his nagging.

"Here." He tossed it down to the sullen Warden who promptly unwrapped it.

He gingerly examined it before taking a bite.

"What is this?" He grimaced, continuing to examine the contents between the slices of bread.

"Chicken salad?" Jared answered, a bit confused.

"_Ew_. Don't you have anything else?" The Warden protested, pushing the sandwich aside. "I mean, honestly now what _is_ this bland garbage?"

"No." Future-Jared replied, a little annoyed.

"Really?" The Warden's lower lip protruded out into a more prominent pout.

"Yes."

"You are _so_ dead when I get back-" He was interrupted by a piercing siren that tore through the room. A bright red border around the monitor with Penna's green dot flashed brightly, along the top beaming in the same bright red the words 'INCOMING CONNECTION REQUEST' flashed in unison.

Jared wasted no time in pressing the button to connect with whoever, undoubtedly Penna, was calling.

"Miss Howl?"

_"Jared! Oh thank God it's you. Where's the Warden?"_ her hurried and hushed voice inspired a concerned look onto Jared's already furrowed brow.

"He's working on something with the Doctor at the moment. Is something wrong? What did you find out?"

The Warden perked himself up, staring intently at the screen. She seemed to be isolated in one spot, two red dots were placed just a few centimeters away. The rest of the cluster moved about freely, only the two red points were still. Her green dot seemed to be pacing around the place she was in, and it was very apparent in her voice that she was nervous.

_"You've gotta get me out of here Jared, these people are driving me _insane!_ I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!"_

"You've not even been there a full day Miss Howl, have you at least found anything useful out?"

There was a pause on her end. The Warden's eyes darted from the screen to Jared rapidly.

"Well?" The Warden squeaked quietly, as if afraid his voice would carry through loud enough to blow her cover. Though judging by the sound of it, she needed little help.

_"Nothing useful yet." _she replied, in a groaning sigh hushed by the static of her transmission.

"I'm afraid you're just going to have to stick it out then. Are you in any serious danger?"

_"Jared, I'm trapped in a base full of people hellbent on putting all of our heads on a post. What do you think?"_

Jared cleared his throat loud enough for her to hear, while the Warden attempted to stifle a snicker.

_"No," _she responded shortly, having received his hint._ "I'm not in any _immediate _danger. Not yet at least."_

"Do you have anything you can offer us now?" Jared requested sternly, having grown tired of dancing around the issue.

_"There is one fellow that is going to be trouble for me to get around. His name is Cordin. I don't have a last name but he's a corporal. Before I can even get closed to the Captain I have to get his approval. And... I doubt he sleeps unguarded, so _that's_ out."_

"Don't waste your energy on the unimportant." Jared rifled through his stack of papers, looking something related to the man she mentioned. He shook his head, disappointed. His concerned expression returning fast as his eye scanned the few pages in front of him.

"I don't exactly know off hand when we'll be able to retrieve you and none of us, present company included," he shot a glance at the Warden, who had forgotten his ill-taste for chicken-salad-sandwiches, munching away as if it were his last meal.

"...Can afford unnecessary attention to ourselves."

There was another pause on her end, yet her transmission remained open. She was starting to pant heavily now, anxiety ridden through her harsh breaths.

_"Someone's coming-"_

And all at once it ended in a sharp screech of static noise.

"W-what happened?"

Jared grunted abruptly, pulling out a stack, just about as tall as himself, of over-stuffed files from under the desk. After letting them drop rather roughly on the surface, he divided the towering manilla folders into three sections, placing the taller of the stacks in the middle, passing a shorter one to the Warden whose gaped-teeth poked out from his pursed lips, while keeping the third for himself.

"Look through those and see if you can find anything on this 'Cordin' fellow."

"Is she alright?"

"I thought you weren't worried." Jared replied, hastily flipping through paper-clipped pages covered in lines of intricately-detailed text.

"I'm not." The Warden snapped, lazily setting his open file on his lap, licking his gloved thumb to graze over papers of a similar manner.

"Well then, be happy. You're finally helping out."


	18. Chapter 18

"What took you so long?" Cordin glared at her as Penna cautiously exited the women's lavatory. She turned around with a start, grabbing a hold of her chest.

Cordin tossed a small, jagged stone in his hand. The one he'd used to chuck at the bathroom door lay off to the side. A visible white scratch streaked along the center of the door, marking where it had hit.

"Lady-business." Penna replied flatly, unamused with his antic that had nearly given her a heart-attack.

"You seem to be spending a lot of time in there, aren't you?"

"Surviving a plane crash has that effect on one's bladder."

"You've survived more than one?" Cordin cocked an amused brow, snickering in the back of his throat.

Penna rolled her eyes and pushed past him, taking Rhod by the arm, who looked all too compliant with her action.

"So, what else have you got to show me around here?"

Rhod proceeded to lead Penna around the rest of the grounds she had not seen yet leaving a surly Cording behind.

Starting first with their training course, when they arrived, she could only stare in shock at the bleak simplicity. Perhaps she had just grown so used to the monstrosity constructs the other Warden dished out to his soldiers, that she felt a sense of pity for the insurgents.

They didn't stay long, as she had quickly became irritated with Rhod's thorough explanation in the art of hoping across a line of tires.

"Didn't you guys have this stuff at your Capital?" He asked, a little confused.

The color fled from her face. "Uh, y-yeah. I mean well, we didn't have it this extravagantly." She heaved a coughing chuckle at him, quickening her pace as if it would help move past the subject. She was tempted to ask about the quantity of trucks and other such information she could later provide to Jared, but with Cordin's suspicion breathing down her neck, she decided against asking until given the right opportunity.

"Sheesh, no wonder you guys got hammered." Rhod scoffed. He cleared his throat, realizing by Penna's skeptical expression, that probably wasn't the best thing to say.

"Err...sorry."

She nodded only nodded, playing along with his scoff.

She could not wait to get out of here. Not only was the fear of getting found out and executed a severely dampening factor on her experience of 'life outside his wonderful world', but this innocent-by-stander act was giving her a feeling of nausea she couldn't seem to shake away.

The sun was beginning to set when another sharp trumpet medley sounded from the speakers, letting them know it was time for lights-out. She hadn't yet had the chance to ask Rhod about their stocks. She shrugged inwardly as he pulled her along to the sleeping quarters, she had six days left to capture the Captain. Though, getting on the good side of the person who dangled his approval like a carrot on a stick was not proving an easy or worthwhile thing to do.

"Penelope...Penelope! Hey, wake up!"

Penna, having been shaken rather roughly by Rhod shot up out of the cot that Rhod had so strongly suggested she use instead of him.

"W-What is it?" She rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"The Captain wants to see you. Right now. You gotta hurry up, c'mon!"

"What!" Penna scrambled out of her sheets, frantically trying to find her boots.

"No time to explain, now you've really got to hurry it up!"

He dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Penna fumbled around for her other boot. Though anxiety rose within her she couldn't seem to shake herself awake.

"C'mon Penelope!" Rhod's muffled voice called from outside, followed by a series of harsh pounding.

"I'm coming! Just a sec!" Where was that other boot? She dug under the cot and to her relief found it hiding behind some of Rhod's garbage. Wasting no time she slipped it on and bolted out the door.

The air was chilled and very quiet outside. The few lights that littered the base burned her sleepy eyes as they hastily cantered to the Captain's quarters.

Penna absentmindedly began to put up her hair into a messy bun. She searched her pockets for the chopsticks she used to keep it in place.

"Where did I..."

"What are you looking for?" Rhod asked, a little confused.

Penna realized what she was doing and let her hair fall down.

"Oh, um... Nothing. Habit."

She quickened her pace to match Rhod's stride, now feeling a bit more alert. The two grew closer to the east end of the base.

As they continued, she noticed a large and relatively new-looking steel watchtower with quite a few soldiers stationed in and around it. It occurred to her that on her way in she saw something very similar on the north end as well. She didn't know if this meant that security for these corners went through cycles, or if these corners, or indeed the others, were weaker than their opposites.

She began to simulate a very Warden-like attack strategy, that is to say she imagined his forces bursting in with no plan at all, killing everyone out of sheer luck. She made note of how many trucks and airships there were as she passed them, counting over twenty each.

A sudden grip on her arm broke her concentration as Rhod tugged her along, quickening their pace.

The two soon approached a weathered, but formidable-looking building, with guards stationed all around. Two steel doors reflected Penna's tired composure as she grew closer. She didn't recognize herself at first, and was a little taken back at her current appearance.

Rhod released his grip and gestured for her to stay put while he marched to and saluted the guards.

"Privates Rhod and Penelope reporting in, we're here to meet with the Captain."

One of the soldiers nodded once and motioned for the doors to be let open. With a groaning metallic wave, they swung open slowly. Penna quickly cantered to Rhod's side, trying to force down the continuing urge to gulp.

Though she tried to convey otherwise, Penna began to feel herself lose control over her fears with each step she took inside the Captain's quarters. She had bumped into Rhod as he stopped to open one of the doors.

"Don't worry, he isn't a bad guy, the Captain I mean. He's just gotta lot on his plate right now, you know? Hell I don't think I'd have half his courage to deal with all this than what he's got."

Penna's eyes followed his hand as he slowly twisted the knob. She wasn't really paying attention to what was being said, only nodding along silently.

"I guess that kind of responsibility makes you intimidating." Rhod finished with a chuckle.

"Huh? Oh, right... Yeah I guess."

The knob was then twisted from the other side, the door flung open. Staring them down from the darkened doorway stood Cordin; his tiny smirk hiding in the corner of his mouth, twitching faintly in time with her rapid heartbeat.

"You're late." He snapped sharply at them. Rhod, seemingly unfazed by this, attempted to peer over his brother's shoulder

"Sorry sir! We're here now!" Rhod called into room.

There wasn't an immediate response from within, although Cordin wasted no time in showing, or rather, shoving the two of them inside.

The room was dimly lit. A single desk lamp dully illuminated the hardened, war-torn face of the bulky man sitting at the solitary desk in the center. The smoke from the black-lacquered pipe he held tightly in his lips swirled around his face, making his expressions impossible for Penna to read.

"This is the newbie?" Penna felt herself shudder. His deep, harsh voice was even more frightening than Cordin's.

Rhod nodded once. His usual cheerfully-ignorant smile had faded into a stern gaze. As he looked over to her, Penna could still see a bit of glint in his eyes, which had put her more at ease. The rising lump in her throat which she couldn't seem to keep down quieted itself from that momentary look of reassurance.

"So." The Captain Byron started, rising from his chair that creaked in wooden sighs of relief from his mass of sheer muscle. "It's my understanding that you are in need of a ship and supplies for the decimated remains of your Capital." He stepped to the side of his desk, blocking out the light from the tiny lamp. His silhouetted figure loomed over her, the aura of smoke still surrounding him.

"Have I understood correctly?"

"Yes, sir." She answered, astounded her voice had any conviction.

"Good. Although," the Captain stepped to the side once more, arms tucked neatly behind his back. Cordin imitated his gestures and movements, circling around Rhod and Penna, twisted and vulturous.

"With the devastation of so many of our bases, my orders as well as the orders of my fellow Captains are to maintain not just radio silence but all forms of communication to the absolute minimum until a dire need is met; our transmissions are becoming easier for _him_to decipher." The Captain Byron stroked his chiseled chin, as he examined Penna.

She swallowed hard, feeling her brow begin to tremble as if dangled on a string. She was aware of what this meant, he would have no way of confirming her identity. At least not without the proper warrant from his superior. But how could she effectively use this to her advantage?

"How many strong are you left, what was it- Penelope?" His words pierced through her, the pounding of her heart silenced by the shaking of her knees.

She kept her eyes locked onto his, digging through her mind for something she could provide him that wouldn't conflict with her story.

"When I left, sir, there were twelve of us. Seven wounded. The rest that could stand were told to remain behind to tend to the others."

It amazed her that with so much of the world fighting to stay free from the Warden's grasp, their forces consisted of so few soldiers. And though she was lying, straight-faced, as well as she could muster, to a man who more than likely would pick apart every one of her words to throw her contradiction back at her were she to slip up, there was a bit truth to her statement.

"And you are the only one who could fly, yes? Well, from the way Cordin has described it, I'm using the word '_fly_' generously."

She managed to form a slight smirk. "Yes, _sir_."

"Isn't that convenient? For you, I mean."

The lump in her throat leaped to the top, almost as if it were scurrying toward a promise of freedom.

"I-I know what you're implying, and you're well within reason to-"

"It'd be sheer irresponsibility on my part if I didn't."

There was a moment of silence that shrouded within. The Captain, contemplating his next choice of words, took his seat back at his desk.

"Um, sir," Rhod piped up. Penna had nearly forgotten he was standing right next to her he'd been so still. "I dunno if this is gonna count for anything but I think-"

"Rhod, don't interfere." Cordin snapped in a low tone.

The Captain raised an amused brow. "No, no go on."

Rhod flashed his brother a satisfied sneer. "I been talkin' a lot to her and I really think she really needs our help."

"Sir, he's twitter-pated."

"And what exactly do you have against her, Cordin?"

"It just doesn't seem right to me. She just drops right out from nowhere and ends up right at our front door asking for all this stuff."

The Captain chewed on the end of his pipe. The tobacco in it had gone out, a thin line of smoke floating above for a moment before disappearing into the atmosphere.

"I have the same concern, corporal but she didn't get here of her own accord, you are the one who brought her." Rhod scratched his nose as if it would help mask his snicker. Cordin exhaled heavily glared at Penna with a narrowed stare.

"So," The Captain began again, setting his pipe down. "On the subject of these supplies and replacement carrier in question," His brow tensed, his dark eyes searching around the room for a moment as he contemplated his words carefully.

"I'm afraid we can be of no help to you."

"But sir!" Rhod spoke out, surprised in his voice. "What about all those people? C'mon we've got plenty of ships to spare!"

"Rhod..." Cordin replied in a low, warning tone.

"Do you honestly think that vile excuse for a _man_ would suffer a handful of our soldiers to live after expending so much time and fire-power attempting to get rid of them? They're dead, Rhod. Or as good as."

He was right, and Penna knew it.

"B-but they can't be I mean...Th-they were alive when you left, right?" Rhod turned to Penna who kept her head down, trying to force a saddened, believable expression. She nodded once, keeping her stare on her shoes.

"Then there's still hope! You can't just leave them-"

"I have my own to look after, Private. If I send out a party to retrieve the rest of Olivander's that leaves us even more vulnerable to attack. And what would I do with them when...IF they got back? We are barely scraping by with the medical supplies we have, and _our_ next shipment will not be delivered for another month."

"But..."

"I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do for them, or for you Penelope. The best I can offer you is a position in our ranks, while I get the _finer details_ on your background." His brow arched, accusing and wary.

"Thank you, sir." Penna said, making sure not to make direct eye-contact with the Captain as she saluted him. He gestured their dismissal as he picked up his pipe to refill it.


	19. Chapter 19

"This is so _pointless_!" The Warden cried, tossing another folder onto the ever-growing pile. He leaned forward, rubbing his face with his palms. His eyes felt so strained from reading countless files on countless insurgents. He couldn't possibly retain any more information set in front of him, the only thing on his mind was being able to get a decent amount of sleep.

"I take it you haven't found anything yet." Jared replied, trying to keep his tone as collected as possible as he flipped though his own folder.

"Of course not! We've been at this for hours Jared, _hours_! I must have gone through about a hundred of these things and have yet to find a single piece of information on this 'Cordin' guy. Is he _that_ much of a threat?"

"Everyone who is against us is a threat, sir."

The Warden felt a slight smirk form. "You're starting to sound like me, Jared. Well... you know, _other_ me."

Jared remained silent, his response was only setting his finished file neatly on the stack before grabbing another.

"Speaking of him," The Warden began, rubbing his chin. "Where is he?"

"He's with the Doctor-"

"Yeah, I heard you, but _where_?"

Jared glanced up from behind his folder, a skeptical and unenthusiastic brow arched over his eye.

"Don't even think about it."

"You can't expect me to just sit here with absolutely no food; nothing edible at least, and no entertainment, can you?" He tucked his hands under his arms, crossing his legs as he sunk in his chair.

"What, you're not having fun?" Jared chuckled.

The Warden tapped his fingers along his his forearm, narrowing his gaze at the tiny man.

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

He pushed aside his remaining files, bringing himself into a tightened pout. His chair swiveled around, putting his back to Jared.

"So, what's he working on?"

Jared rolled his eye as he searched for another cigar to light. When he found one, he set it off to the side, for when a real need of the relief it would provide him arose.

"Something."

The Warden, his back still turned in a defiant stance, twitched a little. Was his curiosity also something to be restricted as well?

"And I'm not allowed to know what this something is _because_?"

All at once a flash of light in the corner of his vision caught his attention. The Warden looked up, trying to find the source in the row of monitors.

Meanwhile, inside a spacious, laboratory-like room, unlike the one the Warden felt he was currently held hostage in, his counterpart's gaze shifted from an ever-growing sheet of paper printed with the several results of his current test, to the test subject itself.

"Varden, I am not so sure zhis design is prac-tical." The Doctor began to reason, looking thoroughly over the other Warden's most recent schematic. His face was now beginning to show the deepened lines of age and experience, accompanied by the silver tint to his thinning hair.

Though his words were that of functional logic; the old, weathered eyes behind the red lenses of his glasses sparked with a desire to abandon mechanical reason, even more so as he examined the progress of their experiment.

"I have every confidence that we can make this work, Doctor," The Future-Warden motioned to the outside view of his window, his own eyes gleaming with a similar desire.

"Practical or not." He offered his old friend a pat on the back.

Below, the dark steel body of his newest creation, aptly named 'Jailbot-X', shimmered against the streaks of fire that blazed in result of testing out it's new and greatly improved cannon. The training course the Warden had attempted to face earlier with Alice had been reduced to nothing but ruble in only a few shots.

The mechanical arms that stretched out of his openings picked up a dented girder, singed by the previous attack. Jailbot-X extended his arm as far as it could reach, which was now quite a distance. As soon as it reached it's maximum capacity, he swung the girder forward, launching it ahead with an extreme force. A series of beeping sounded from his dot-matrix screen as he took steady aim. In one quick blast from a laser that appeared out of another opening, the girder was instantly vaporized, leaving nothing behind to prove its former existence.

"It is going to take q'vite a lot more power to keep him running, _Herr_. Vith zhe supplies ve have, I fear he vill not be able to hold zhe charge ve can afford to give him."

The other's eyes lowered, the flames from outside reflecting off his amber glasses. He let the Doctor's concerns sink into his mind, considering what the best plan of action would be. He lifted his head up for a moment upon remembering the intended purpose of this experiment.

"Yes, I know this," His tone was low. "But, he should be able to last through one battle with the power he's using now. And one is all we need, Doctor. One will be just enough to obtain what I'm after."

"For your sake, Varden I hope you are r'vite."

The Doctor gave a last look over the schematics before turning his attention back to the view of outside.

"How vill you let Howl know of zhis?"

The other's menacing grin returned in that second. He tapped his fingertips together, the glare on his glasses blocking out the view of his maniacal eyes.

"Now now Doctor, we mustn't risk blowing her cover. No, I think she would rather enjoy another surprise."

The other Warden's twisted smile stretched just under his ears as his mind filled with images of not only the havoc he would cause, but the terror so graciously given to him by the rebels scurrying to escape the wake of his greatest creation yet.

The Doctor followed suit with his own mangled, eager grin.

"Ja Herr, but vith zhe supplies zhat ve hope to recover, vill you not use zhem to make up for zhe loss of our air forces?"

The other tucked his arms behind his back, tilting his head into a slight nod.

"I don't think that is necessary. What use would I have for them now?" He motioned to Jailbot-X who was occupied with a sort of target practice; using the larger chunks of the former training course as marks.

"I do not blame you for vanting to focus on him, Herr; he is q'vite zhe accomplishment. But, if ve should be attacked from above again, I fear-"

"Our friend Mr. Byron has plenty more to offer us than just his share of weaponry, Doctor. I'm confident that his brave, little mind contains the locations of several more brave, little camps for the taking."

"Varden-"

"There is no need to worry," The Future-Warden interrupted once more, having grown irritated with the Doctor's lecture-in-the-making.

"The plan is to launch the attack tomorrow, yes?"

"Ja." The Doctor nodded, turning his attention back to their experiment.


	20. Chapter 20

Now that it was actually beginning to show signs of morning out, Penna felt even more strained than when she had shot out of bed.

Meeting with the Captain finally; seeing what she was up against face-to-face, only contributed to swelling anxiety she felt turning into a cancerous tumor, just waiting to burst out. And as she was led, pushed rather, by Rhod to attend the morning drills, the fatigue in her body could only plead louder for a chance to rest.

Her arms and legs were beginning to blotch with purple and green marks from the other Warden's 'surprise', doing well on their part to remind her of that hellish experience.

The sharp, piercing whistles echoing through the chilly mist as she and the group of soldiers made their fifth lap around the track sent shooting pains through her burning legs. Rhod followed close behind, shouting encouragement to keep her going. And though she appreciated the gesture, she wanted nothing more than to just take a second and breathe.

In an effort to take her mind away from this, she cursed the Future-Warden for not putting her through this sort of torture before sending her out. At least she would have been somewhat prepared. The Drill-Sergeant's attempts to run her ragged were proving to be a success as well.

The other soldiers, thankfully paid little attention to the strange and, by the looks of it, quite out of shape young woman as they jogged past her.

Another few laps and finally the whistle for a break screeched into the cold morning air.

"Oh thank God..." Penna panted, using her knees as a brace to keep herself propped up.

"What are you doing Penelope? Don't let him see you like that!"

Rhod pulled her up by the arm and patted her back before pushing her into the line of soldiers who looked as through they hadn't even broken a sweat.

"But I-" Another harsh blow from the sergeant's whistle and Penna's instinct to stand sharp kicked in.

He paced along his ranks, arms folded neatly, yet firmly behind his back. He was a younger-looking man, a face similar in shape to that of the Future-Warden. And his eyes, though stern, were a far more pleasant sight than those of her employer.

Looking at this man brought forth a sense of confidence that seemed to ease a bit of her exhaustion. And though she knew the Drill-Sergeant was not at all who he resembled, Penna suddenly felt the urge to smirk. To show him she was no pushover.

"Alright!" The sergeant spoke out, his voice much more masculine than his face conveyed, something Penna found to be a little humorous.

"The Captain tells me that we are soon to be welcoming a troop of Mexico's novices for training."

He stopped pacing to stare at one of the soldiers further down the line. The young man he singled out held an expression that inspired a deepening scowl on the sergeant's face.

"So what can I hope to show them with a bunch of slackers like you?" His head jutted forward, his nose barely touching the almost-whimpering soldier.

"Sir-"

"Ten more laps! Hop to it!" He pointed to the track, his posture still bent and intimidating.

The soldier saluted, not allowing himself to show a sign of reluctance as he trotted his way back to the track.

The sergeant rose again, continuing his pace.

"The rest of you start on the obstacle-course! Now!"

It took a good second for Penna to get into the rhythm of her group as they marched their way to the course. She was tempted to look back at him, but the way Rhod had warned her earlier caused her to decide against it.

They approached the beginning of the course; the first section being that of a rather high wall. Two ropes attached swayed limply in the breeze on both sides of it. Thankfully for her, Penna had found herself pretty far down the line.

Though as the soldiers began to perform this task in pairs, she groaned to herself, realizing that she might very well have to overcome this with Rhod as her partner; his endless energy, especially this early in the morning was not making containing her anger an easy thing to do.

Back inside the Captain's quarters, Cordin knocked hard a few times on his door, taking a moment to wait for permission to enter.

"Has there been any news on the attack plan, sir?" Cordin asked the Captain quietly as he entered his office.

The Captain inhaled deeply on his pipe, adding an air of suspense that swirled around the two of them like the smoke that trailed out of his nostrils.

"When the cavalry from Cancun arrives, the plan,"

He paused, taking another long drag from his pipe. "Is to hold off for a day or two, make sure everyone is absolutely ready for battle. Can't just rush in there without going over some sort of simulation with everyone."

"What if we are attacked before then? You've said yourself our medical supplies will not arrive for another month, how will we-"

"I have no doubts that boy knows our whereabouts, Corporal. However, as of now, with his precious SuperJail in ruin, we have the upper hand. He is too blinded by his own arrogance to see that architectural-eyesore he has the audacity to call a 'base' isn't enough to keep the entire world at bay."

Cordin remained silent for a moment, a light smile appearing on his surly face upon remembering the success from their ambush.

"Do those coming from Cancun know about this plan?"

"Why do you think they are coming specifically to us, Cordin?" The Captain chuckled lowly, relighting his tobacco with a worn lighter he'd pulled from his pocket.

"What about the girl?"

"That piece of information I am still waiting on."

"Sir, I really think-"

"I know what you think," The Captain quickly spoke over his suspicious assistant, his tone was very sharp.

"But I am not going to be responsible for the death of an innocent being, if she indeed turns out to be innocent."

Cordin nodded, bitterly accepting his commander's decision. To keep himself silent he clenched his fist, digging his nails into his palm.

Things inside the surveillance room weren't any less tense for the Warden and Jared either.

"What the _hell_ is that thing? And _why _does it have Jailbot's face?" The Warden shouted, pointing to the monitor that held in its screen the image of Jailbot-X.

Jared heaved a tiresome sigh, quite fed up with the younger counterpart. By now the two, or rather just the Warden, had given up any hope of finding anything useful in those stacks of files.

"Think of it as an improvement, sir."

"Oh, like hell I will! Where is he! What's he done to _my _Jailbot!" The Warden rolled up his sleeves as if he were prepared to throw a few punches at someone, preferably his future-self.

He lunged to his side, grabbing the future-self of his former assistant by his collar. The Warden attempted to keep him dangled high in the air as he would have normally done, but found him a little harder to keep him held in his grip. It seemed Jared had exchanged quite a bit of his flab for muscle.

Jared, admittedly a little startled by this action, managed to keep a calm composure.

"_Where._Is. He?"

Jared placed his stubby hand on the Warden's wrist, giving it a tight squeeze as he pulled himself free. He landed with a small thud, but kept himself braced.

"I really wouldn't, sir." Jared shook his head slowly, keeping his eye on the Warden.

The Warden brushed the front of his shirt off, ignoring the twinge in his wrist. His glare shot from the monitor to Jared rapidly as he growled through clenched teeth.

"Why not? I've got nothing to worry about, right?" It took every ounce of self-control he could muster to keep his tone steady.

"Howl- _Penna_... Argh! Whoever!" He took a deep breath, reminding himself to save his temper for his counterpart.

"Said it herself I'm safe as far as being killed goes. So be a sport and point me in the right direction."

At this point Jared found it rather hard to adhere to the other Warden's command. He tapped his fingers along the surface of the desk, it's rhythm echoing his growing annoyance. He considered the consequences of letting the Warden barge in as he wished, unable to find reason in their threat not to let him go.

"It's on the first floor. Take the lift on your right, you'll find it."

The Warden huffed, nodding his head sharply, hands placed firmly on his hips.

"There now, was that so difficult?"

He didn't wait for Jared's response, wasting no time to bolt out the door.

The Warden sprinted down the corridor, staying to the right side just in case he would pass the lift.

When he found it, he eyed the keypad, trying to figure out which combination of button would summon it.

A sudden flash of instinct guided his fingers along a series of six digits. The out-of-place bell chimed, much to his relief. The next few seconds to him, as he listened to the gentle hum of the rising lift, were painfully long.

The lift arrived, the doors had barely opened as the Warden shoved himself inside. His eyes scanned the array of buttons, searching for the one that would direct him to the first floor. Once he found it, he put all his force into jamming that tiny button into obeying his order.

"That son of a... Who the hell does he think he is... If he so much as put a scratch on my Jailbot I'll..." He fumed, pacing in tiny circles in the cramped space provided to him.

His glare would glance from his ever-tapping shoes to the display showing the current floor. It occurred to him that in his entire stay here, he hadn't seen Jailbot at all. This realization was just the fuel he needed to keep his anger burning.

"How long has this been going on? Oh when I get my hands on him..." His fists clenched around an invisible neck as he cursed.

"Argh! Hurry up!"

As if on cue the lift gently slowed to a halt. As though he felt they needed help, the Warden pried open the doors and burst into another sprint.

He didn't know exactly where he was at the moment in relation to his future-self, nor did he really care. He only let rage direct his legs where his instinct told them to go.

He passed a door marked 'Observation', skidding to a stop. A small, lightly-tinted window was placed just at his eye-level. He peered inside, standing on the tips of his toes as if it would help his vision. He growled under his breath seeing the forms of two men inside.

"Let me in right this instant!" He pounded on the door, using both fists against the glass.

"You have no right to-"

The door flung open, the irate figure of his counterpart stood furiously in the other side.

As the Future-Warden opened his mouth, he felt the breath he inhaled to shout had been knocked out of him as he was pushed aside.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Warden!" The other quickly regained his voice, following his younger-self as he stormed to the window.

"No, what the hell are _you _doing? Where is Jailbot!"

The Future-Warden struggled inwardly to keep his lips from curling into a scowl, instead, with a great amount of effort, he offered the distraught Warden a snide smirk.

"Why, he's out there, of course." He gestured to window where outside the black, steel body of Jailbot-X hovered lightly above the ground, searching for more things to destroy.

The Warden ground his teeth, leering at his counterpart, refusing to look at that...thing any more than he had too.

The Doctor stared, bemused at the excited and youthful version of the other Warden. He knew the man was here, and his current predicament, yet he found his appearance to be a lot more intriguing than he expected.

"Herr, zhere is nozhing to get so ex'cited about. Zhis is just zhe product of progress!" The Doctor cheered, raising his hand to give the sullen Warden a firm pat on the back.

The Warden moved out of his reach, his furrowed glare narrowing by the second.

The other approached him quickly, matching his expression perfectly. Soon the two stood nose to nose, each baring their gaped-teeth in a low hiss.

"So, you're _unhappy _with my invention, are you?" The Future-Warden snarled.

"That doesn't even come _close _to describing how I feel."

The other tightened his grip on his folded arms, trying to keep himself from wringing his counterpart's neck.

The two continued to glare at each other for a few moments, causing the Doctor to busy himself with more test results to distract himself from the tension in the air.

The sound of rustling papers brought the Future-Warden out of his stare-down.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor hesitated for a moment before answering. "Ja, Herr?"

"The plans have just been changed. Why wait when he's ready to be debuted now?"

"What are you talking about?" The Warden asked, a little confused, yet remaining vigilant in his attempt to keep as stern as physically possible for him.

"Varden, I don't zhink now is zhe right time-"

"You listen to _me_! _I_ am the goddamn Warden! _I_ am the commander! _I _am the one who is in charge here!" The other roared, stomping his foot down to emphasize his temper, or lack of one rather.

"Now put in the _fucking_ coordinates and blow those spineless rats to oblivion!"


	21. Chapter 21

"Oh c'mon Penelope, you can't be tired yet!" Rhod laughed. He caught Penna against his arm as she lost her footing, almost tripping face forward on one of the tires she was hurriedly trying to hop through.

"Sure I can." She snapped, launching herself from his brace.

It was well into the morning now, and though it was beginning to warm up, Penna found herself unable to enjoy the subtle sunlight.

The Drill-Sergeant blew his whistle. Most of the soldiers, herself and Rhod included, lined themselves neatly in front of him. Apart from the few stragglers aside, who had been farther along the obstacle-course, cantered back.

"That's it for this morning!" He barked. His whistle dropped from his mouth to his chest, adding a light jingle to his stern voice.

As if Rhod knew she would, he nudged her before she had the chance to heave an exasperated breath of relief.

"Meet back here at twelve-hundred hours!"

The sergeant turned to make his leave. He stopped short, spinning on his heel to fire a piercing stare at his ranks.

"And I will come after you personally if you are not present."

The sergeant dismissed them and continued his stride to a building undoubtedly serving as his office.

Another blasting medley rang through the speakers, signaling the option to attend breakfast.

"C'mon Penelope! Let's go let's go!"

Penna didn't even bother resisting Rhod's hasty tug this time as he pulled her along to the mess hall.

"Don't you ever think about anything other than food?" She chuckled, so as not to offend him.

He nodded, replying to her chuckle with his own hearty laugh.

Once the two were inside the mess hall, Penna was a little thankful this time he allowed her to fill her own tray. Not that she placed much on it however, she didn't have much of an appetite after the morning she'd had.

Finally being able to sit down was such a wonderful feeling to her. She could feel her muscles cry out in gracious, yet exhausted pulsations.

"Are you still worried about the Captain?" Rhod asked. The expression Penna gave must have inspired his concerned tone.

She perked herself up a little, rubbing the ache out of her legs.

"Wouldn't you be? I mean he's obviously not going to give me a replacement carrier..."

Rhod chewed his food, at a safe pace this time.

"Well, I mean, yeah he sounded pretty adamant about that, but I mean all those people you left behind! Maybe when those guys from Mexico get here he'll change his mind."

Penna shook her head. "How long is that going to take though? I am kind of on a tight schedule."

He rose a slightly confuse-ridden brow, but it quickly faded as he came up with his own assumption to her statement.

"Right! They're counting on you." He nodded excitedly.

She looked down at her plate, gingerly toying with the sloppy mess strewn on her tray.

"Yeah..." She nodded once.

She remained silent as Rhod devoured his plate. He would occasionally take a break from inhaling his food to talk about his life from before the war. He mostly talked about his life in the country. How he and his brother were orphaned when they were just kids, how Cordin worked so many jobs to be able to provide for the both of them.

Penna couldn't find the words to respond, she had heard and seen this sort of story quite often. Depressingly often.

"What about you? What got you into this?" He finally asked, hoping to have another chance to take a mouthful.

Penna took a deep breath, trying to remember what she had told him so far.

"Well," She began, deciding to delve into her own, truthful past for a moment.

"Before, I worked at a fairly nice restaurant; I was a hostess. It paid pretty well, I guess." She shrugged a little.

"I also worked with my mother in her business. The money I made from the restaurant pretty much went into keeping that up. I didn't mind though, we had everything we needed."

She didn't quite know how to explain the feelings rushing in her mind. She'd never really had the chance to talk about her past to anyone before. The only one who ever asked and actually listened was Jared.

She offered Rhod a soft smile. It faltered as she realized she had best come up with something to tie it in to the lies she had already told.

"Then the civilian attack started and ever since I've been running."

"So, your mom got killed?"

Penna shook her head again. "No, she died before the war began."

_'Thankfully...'_She added in her mind.

Rhod slunk back in his seat, giving her a moment of silence with her thoughts.

His attention quickly shifted to one of the barred windows.

"Did you hear that?" He asked, rising up in one swift motion.

He hadn't been the only one. Other soldiers in the mess hall heard what ever it was as well.

A dull crashing sound reverberated in short bursts, gently shaking the floor. It began to grow louder, as if it were getting closer.

Suddenly a startling alarm blared throughout the mess hall, echoing in one long, screeching wave.

Penna instantly covered her ears, recoiling from the piercing siren.

"What is that-" Her confusion was interrupted by another low explosion.

The soldiers quickly formed two orderly lines, wasting no time, bolting out the door. The crashing noise now blasted in the air, barely masked by the rising alarm.

Rhod moved to follow his fellow soldiers. Just as he was about to burst into a sprint, he stopped to look back at her.

"I've got to go find the Captain, Penelope! You just stay right here until I find him!"

"No wait!" She called after him. She attempted to chase after him but found her foot had become somewhat tangled in the leg of her chair.

"Rhod!" She called again as he became lost in the unison of marching soldiers.

Soon she was the only one left inside, still struggling in her panic to rig her boot free.

The alarm continued. A faint wave of gunfire erupted, almost lost in the cacophony of explosions.  
She finally loosened herself from the cluster of chairs and ran to the open door. She had to find him and the Captain before it was too late.

_'Goddammit Warden! This isn't the kind of distraction I had in mind!'_

A stream of bullets fired off to the side of her, directed at something in the sky. The gun-toting soldiers shouted angrily at their target that had just become lost in a cloud of smoke.

Another explosion, this time much closer to her. The resulting blast tore off the edge of the storage unit ahead, the debris crashing down on the supplies and trucks inside.

A few soldiers scrambled to the undamaged sheds, hastily trying to salvage what trucks they could before they were hit. The others were determined to shoot whatever was causing the attack down.

The lifeless bodies of those that had been hit lay across her view. More and more were dropping like stones by the second. Cries from those suffering their last agonizing moments could be heard fading in and out in the noise erupting from burning buildings and gunshots.

More gunfire shot across the yard of the base. Penna had no idea where the safest place to run to would be. She clenched her fist and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her to the one place she could only hope to find Rhod.

A sharp grasp on her arm pulled her out of any concentration or sense of self she had.

"You little traitor!" The vicious, booming voice from Cordin screamed into her ear.

"You sent them here, didn't you?"

He pushed her against the side of an undamaged building, holding her against its walls with all his strength. A glinting, metallic object caught her eye. A pistol clung to his thigh, held by a holster on his leg.

"I don't know what's going on! I sure as hell didn't ask for this!" Penna tried to push him off her but found she possessed little force to even budge him.

"Where's Rhod? He went off to find the Captain, is he alright?" She continued to struggle under the pressure of his palm against her shoulder.

"Who, Rhod or the _Captain_?"

"Your _brother_! Argh! Let go of me!"

"No, I have a better idea." Cordin gripped her arm with a crushing fist, digging his wide fingers deep into her skin. She winced and tried to pull away, only to be dragged along harder.

She frantically searched for any sign of Rhod through the scattered men, though each one looked just like the next to her as they blurred past. She spotted a truck pulling out of a unit, barely given the chance to embark fully as it was quickly incinerated by a bright, red beam of light.

The rain of bullets continued to spray above them, another sharp explosion destroyed a nearby shed. The impact from its blast had caused Penna to lose her footing, yet Cordin's grip remained firm and tightening. It didn't even seem to phase him. She stammered to her feet, not wanting to be pulled along the ground, trampled under a soldier's boot.

Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of something sleek and black zooming overhead. She hadn't had the time to make out its exact shape but her instinct told her it was not something to willingly let yourself get caught in its line of sight.

"Cordin you have to listen to me! Let go!" She shouted. They were getting closer to the Captain's quarters, she could make out the outline of the building through a wave of smoke that slid past in a choking sheet.

He paid her no response, only trudging forward.

The guards that had been stationed around the Captain's gate had joined in the fighting, manning a massive armored-truck with a mounted gun in its bed. Two soldiers positioned themselves next to it; one to hold it steady and feed it bullets, the other to aim and fire. It soon sped past the struggling Penna and her 'escort', firing away relentlessly at the shiny, dark object flying above.

Cordin yanked harder, jerking her into the building as they barely reached the door.

"Sir! I found her!" He flung her in front of him, giving her back a hard shove to keep her moving.

One more powerful surge from an explosion, this one strong enough to cause Cordin to fumble with his balance.

The Captain's door burst open. He stormed over to the two of them, clutching his pistol in his hand.  
He took a hold of her collar, shaking her violently.

"I want answers and I want them now!" He shouted in her face.

It took her a good second to regain her focus from having been shaken so roughly. She placed her hand on his arms in an attempt to keep herself still.

"I...I don't know what's happened!" She cried, using her free hand she tried to brush away the hair that had fallen into her face.

"Bullshit!" He shook her again.

"What are you doing sir, let her go!"

"Rhod!" Cordin lunged to his brother, almost tackling him to the ground. "Thank God you're alright!"

"Th-they're destroying everything Captain!" Rhod feebly tried to yell, his voice strained under his brother's weight.

"We have to evacuate- Ack! Get off me Cordin!"

Suddenly, a calamitous shudder rocked the entire building. The deafening shriek of steel ripping against steel tore through the roof, followed by a hard, shaking rumble. All at once the four of them were knocked back by a powerful blast. The side of the Captain's quarters had been completely blown off.

Penna, hardly conscious by now felt something round and cold wrapping around her middle, soon to pick her up out of the mess of brick and stone. She found the humming of mechanical working to be quite soothing in her fading mind. She couldn't place her finger on why she couldn't feel anything solid under her feet.

_"There you are Howl. That is you, isn't it? Oh good, I was so worried you may have been caught in the cross-fire."_

Her eyes flew open. She saw the metal arm that held her in the air, and what it was attached to. The neon-green dot-matrix display blinked a cheeky, happy grin at her, soon to phase into a frowning scowl as it extended another arm.

The view below her, as she forced herself to find a point of focus was a vast clutter of all that remained of the devastated base. The siren had stopped. The bullets ceased.

What had managed to remain steady on their foundations, though they had taken a substantial amount of damage, were a few sparse units, housing the air carriers and a few trucks that had not been piloted by the scurrying soldiers.

_"Oh Daniel! Daniel my good man, I know you're alive under there. Come out and play, won't you?"_The voice of the Future-Warden echoed tauntingly through a speaker placed in the center of Jailbot-X.

The free arm of his creation flipped over a few rocks to find the unconscious Captain. Next to him however, a long, jagged, and blood-splattered piece of shrapnel extended out of the back of a slightly less bulky man.

"C-Cordin...?" Rhod whimpered, trying to wriggle free from under the body of his brother.

His eyes shot up to the source of the voice. His face contorted into a look of horror, only outweighed by his own disbelief.

As the mechanical arm swiftly grabbed the Captain by a limp wrist, Rhod had managed to free himself.

He looked to his brother, then to Penna, tears starting to stream from his dust-caked eyes.

"Y-you..." He muttered, stumbling over a loose stone, trying to crawl his way closer.

_"Oh, what's this? It looks like Howl's made a friend! How splendid!"_

"P-Penelope-"

The static voice of the other Warden burst into a shrill, maniacal laugh as Jailbot-X began to hover higher in the air, making his way to head back. His pixelated face had changed to an animation, matching his creator's humor.

_"'Penelope'? Oh Howl, you really are the creative type aren't you?"_

A compartment opened from Jailbot-X's chest, revealing the shining barrel of a gun. One bullet was fired, tearing into the flesh on the edge of his shoulder. The boy collapsed almost instantly, weakly clutching his oozing wound.

_"Well, that settles it then. My what a bore this has all been. Come on boy,"_The Future-Warden cooed out of the speaker.

_"It's time to go home."_


	22. Chapter 22

The knot that twisted in her stomach was a deeper pain to bare than the unforgiving pounding that surged in her head as she took a last look at the smoldering havoc of Resistance-Capital-Four. As Rhod made his futile attempts to crawl back to his brother's body, still clutching his injured shoulder, Penna averted her eyes, keeping her blurred sights on the view ahead.

The unconscious Captain swayed in the air, dangled by his wrist. The wounds he suffered did not appear to be life-threatening, and considering she was far less physically built than he, and had survived the blast, she could only hope by some act of a higher power that he had been given the relief of death.

Much to her own relief, the other Warden's transmissions from Jailbot-X had ended. No doubt he was waiting for the three of them in the vast expanse ahead.

The display of his creation occasionally formed a bright green expression of concern and would either loosen or tighten his metal grip around Penna's middle if he felt her struggle.

She couldn't look at either of them. And even though in her mind this was all part of the job; nothing more than a slight tweak to her normal routine, she couldn't find the ability to stomach the guilt that knotted her insides.

It was quite a distance they flew until a plum-colored aircraft could be seen faintly in the horizon, its propellers whirring pleasantly. A bitter-sweet twinge barely dulled her physical pain in that moment, she was glad they wouldn't be traveling the entire journey like this back to SuperBase.

Jailbot-X slowly began to lower himself as he approached the aircraft. Just as she expected, the smug, arrogant and infuriating figure of the Future-Warden stood proudly aside the vessel, his arms widely open to welcome them.

Penna was the first to be released, cautiously placed on her feet as the mechanical bind unwound around her middle. The Captain remained grasped, as if the improved-Jailbot were offering him as a gift to his creator.

The other Warden approached with caution, tip-toeing slowly to examine his limp body.

"He _is_ alive, isn't he Howl?" His lithe tone slithering between his pursed lips.

Penna brushed herself off, not caring about the condition of her bruised flesh.

"_I'm_ alive aren't I?" She hissed, feebly walking toward the open dock of the carrier.

The other sneered in response, giving the dangling Captain a light shove to sway him further before placing his hands firmly on his hips.

"Is he or isn't he?"

"He is. But he won't be for long if he's not attended to." She replied, matching his annoyed way of speaking with her own bitter voice.

She tightly grasped the rail of the aircraft's stairwell, using it as some leverage to help heave herself inside. Her legs felt as though they were fading in and out of feeling, a sharp burning through her aching muscles reminded her quite roughly they were still indeed attached to her.

She wanted nothing more than to get on this thing and go.

A gloved hand extended forward to offer her some assistance.

"Here, let me help." The Warden offered politely.

She blinked at his sudden, unexpected appearance. He was still here?

"What happened to your machine? And um... What is _that_ thing?" She asked, nodding her head in the direction of Jailbot-X before gingerly accepting his helpful gesture.

She wasn't that surprised to see it, she was used to random mechanical creations showing up here and there. She was more surprised to see the younger Warden was still in this time. She grinned inwardly, knowing how _thrilled_ the other was most likely at this.

"Don't ask." He heavily rolled his eyes. His mouth formed a distasteful scowl before quickly returning to his own exhausted smile.

He gave her a pat on the back, a little rougher than he probably should have as she had winced.

"You look like hell." The both of them said together, the Warden chuckling awkwardly as Penna pushed the hair out of her face.

"You can talk on your own time, Howl!" The other shouted, pointing to the Captain. He motioned to Jailbot-X, giving him the order to place the Captain inside the aircraft.

Penna looked around the inside, searching for a stretcher she'd hoped the other had been thoughtful enough to bring a long. Upon seeing one in the far corner, she moved past the Warden, giving him a light shove to push him aside as she slumped over to it.

She rolled it to the open dock, gesturing for him to be lowered. The Warden, a little miffed that he had been pushed aside like that; even after helping her into the damn plane, stomped behind her, poking his head out the door. He was curious to see this Captain up close.

He glanced to her, an apprehensive sense began to grow in the pit of his gut. She certainly looked like she'd had a rough time, but she hardly showed any expression revealing any wariness or even remorse. It was true he hadn't known the woman long, but he didn't think, based on his experience with her, that she could just shut down like that.

"Gently! Gently!" She shouted, waving her hands up and down hurriedly.

The arm attached to Jailbot-X slowed his extension just a bit, softly laying the Captain on the mattress of the stretcher.

The other strode back, seemingly gliding with every step. He was obviously pleased that so far everything had worked out just as he envisioned.

Well, almost everything. His satisfied smile began to shrink away as he was reminded of who had demanded with a relentless force to come aboard with him.

"For heaven's sake Warden, sit down!" His future-self hissed sharply, extending his finger to press a button protruding from just inside the aircraft to raise the door.

He then pressed one of his medals, waiting a moment for whoever he was calling to respond. His leer remained focused on his counterpart who had yet to follow his command to take his seat. Penna had begun to busy herself with securing the Captain's stretcher to the floor, making absolutely sure that his leather straps were bound.

_ "Yes, sir?"_ Jared's voice broke through.

The Future-Warden's smile returned. "Jared! Gather up a party to come and retrieve these wonderful goodies, will you?"

_ "Yes sir, right away."_

The other nodded once, pressing yet another medal.

"Oh pilot! We're ready to take off now."

The rumble of the engine soon filled the cabin. Penna found her seat, sitting close to the Captain's stretcher, keeping a firm grip on it's rails as an extra precaution. The other took his one seat away from her, folding his arms neatly on his lap.

"Sit down, Warden." He commanded again, motioning around to the array of empty chairs.

The Warden sat with a rough plop, crossing his legs in a disgusted swoop.

As the aircraft's propellers began to whirl faster, it's body jerked with a start, lifting it off the ground. The Warden's grumpy composure faltered for a moment as he awkwardly tried to reclaim his balance.

"So back to what we were discussing earlier," He began, narrowing his eyes at his smug counterpart.

"What are _we_ going to do about _my_ machine again?"

The other leaned in slowly, tapping his fingers together. He looked to Penna at his left, his menacing grin tucked high in the corner of his mouth at her exhaustion.

"As much as I would _love_ to have you out of my hair, and believe me I would _very much_; you are going to have to obtain a sense of patience War- Wait, you're not going to do that here are you?" The Future-Warden had jumped a little, a recoiled look of shock had replaced his former smirk.

Penna's head had rested itself on the edge of the stretcher's mattress, she said nothing and turned slowly, her exhausted, yet fierce eyes burned with a hateful distaste.

"No." She responded, lifting herself up and straightening her posture in her seat. She began to rub her eyes, trying to ease the tension that manifested in her mind.

The Warden lifted a brow. Do what?

_ 'Oh.' _He answered in his mind.

He couldn't help but continue to stare at the unconscious Captain, wondering what that looked like from an outsider's perspective. He couldn't deny that he was curious, now that it had been mentioned, but remembering that he himself had been tricked into her little 'mind-rapist' game, he suddenly felt his apprehension turn into a slight nausea.

"I have plenty of patience!" He snapped back, returning his attention to his future-self.

"It's just I was assured that after this whole thing was done you'd have at least something for me to work with." He twirled his wrist in the air, adding more prominence to his issue.

"You weren't _assured_ anything, Warden." The other retorted, his calm composure beginning to visibly wear thin on his face.

"And honestly now, have you forgotten your manners, Howl? It's hard to believe you're a woman with such bad etiquette."

Penna had slumped into her chair, her head resting against the wall. She was so tired she didn't even bother caring how the two saw her now.

"First things first; when we get back you are going to return _immediately_ to your uniform." He looked her over once or twice before yanking her into an upright position.

She pursed her lips, folding her arms tightly across her chest.

"Well, after you clean up a bit. Good Lord, haven't these people _ever_ heard of soap?" He wiped his hand from where he had touched her from the disgust of his own comment.

"Fine." She bit back. She didn't have the energy to fight him now.

As the aircraft continued its course back to SuperBase, The Warden and his future-self continued to argue back and forth about both of their necessities concerning this new arrival of spare parts. It had been decided, much to his disdain, that the Warden would continue to fix the revised machine while Penna interrogated the Captain.

She had managed to stifle her overwhelming relief. Though she didn't consider the two of them an entirely symmetrical person, she feared that if he were to see what she had done to him, any hope of changing his opinion of her would be but a fleeting twitch.

Her mind traveled along a tangent; if she could change the way the younger-self of her selfish, abusive and tyrannical employer, perhaps his positive outlook would change that of the Future-Warden's.

No. Perhaps not.

The sight of SuperBase was welcoming one at that, far more than both the Warden or Penna had imagined it could be. When they arrived, Penna unbolted the Captain's stretcher and hastily rolled him inside.

The two Wardens continued to bicker, neither taking a chance to breathe for fear of their side of the argument getting lost.

Penna paid them no attention as she pushed the Captain along those familiar white corridors. She had taken this particular path many times. Too many, it seemed to her. She knew all the lifts to take, all the buttons to press by heart.

She'd occasionally looked down at his unconscious face, her own scrunching up to keep herself focused.

There was no way in hell she would be able to carry on the task ahead without a chance to rest. She shook her head, approaching a tall metal door. The words shined in a glistening lacquer, 'Interrogations'.

She pressed the combination of button to open it, no need to even look at the keypad. The door chimed it's unlock sound, Penna wasted no time in showing him inside. She flicked a light-switch, wincing at the sudden brightness.

Though the room had been marked as one for interrogations, on the inside it looked much more like a private room in a hospital; apart from the rather large and heavily tinted window that lined the back wall. A camera had been placed just above it. A stainless-steel sink protruded out from one of the walls, a short counter wrapped around it. It's contents contained many different types of antiseptic and tranquilizers, but she was far too exhausted to get into all this now.

She pulled the trolley that had been set off to the side for her close to herself and the Captain, clear plastic tubes and various other wires set neatly coiled on it's shining surface.

She had become somewhat of an expert in inserting the proper tubes to prepare one for an I.V and sedation. In less than a minute she had the Captain prepped and ready for her duty.

She would tend to him later. Now, the two of them were in desperate need of rest.


	23. Chapter 23

"Are you at least going to tell me the way to my room?" The Warden grumbled, looking around expectantly.

His counterpart, who had begun to make his way down the same path his Interrogator took, stopped suddenly. He turned to reply to his past-self, a devious smile beginning to slowly appear on his face.

"Oh, why _yes _of course." He nodded, placing a hand on his chest.

The Warden stepped back a bit, quite put off by his sudden and questionably-hospitable demeanor.

The Future-Warden outstretched his hand, grasping tightly to his suit jacket. His offer to lead him had quickly become yet another instance of dragging the Warden along by his collar.

"I am perfectly capable of walking you know!" The Warden shouted, trying to push away the fist that gripped him, with little success.

"Honestly now! You're scuffing up my shoes!" He gestured to one of his dress-shoes, which by now, from his ventures so far were not only scuffed, but caked in dirt and grit. Of course finding himself constantly 'guided' along so roughly didn't help to keep his attire clean either.

The other ignored his plight to release him, dragging him along the entire distance to the nearest lift.

When they arrived the Warden was finally let go. He patted his shoulders off and adjusted his necktie, grimacing as his counterpart pressed the appropriate numbers to call the elevator.

"How am I going to fix my machine when you've not given me any replacement parts? Not like they would work anyway, obviously." The Warden sneered, curling his lip into a scowl.

The Future-Warden did not answer right away, his foot beginning to tap wildly as they waited for the lift to arrive.

"Um, _hello_?" He tapped his future-self's shoulder, expecting to be given some sort of answer.

The bell chimed, his only response given to him was another sharp tug on his collar.

"Perhaps you should have put it together right the first time." The other hissed just as the doors closed.

"I put that thing together _exactly _how the blueprint said to!" The Warden snapped back, poking his future-self sharply in the shoulder.

"If _you_ hadn't let _my _SuperJail get destroyed I would have been-"

"If _you_ hadn't _used_ the fucking machine in the _first_place none of this would have happened!"

"And miss out on all this?" The Warden tossed his hands in the air, sarcasm laced his words as they dully left his mouth.

The other sneered in response, his deepening glare narrowing under the tension quickly beginning rise along with the lift.

"I should say this has given me a wonderful insight on what not to become in the future!"

"That remains to be seen, Warden."

The bell chimed once more and the doors could not open fast enough for the Future-Warden it seemed. His counterpart had retracted his arm for fear of it getting grabbed again. The Warden grunted, insisting that he could and would walk the rest of the way.

Looking around provided little bearing to him as the two continued. Though he had made an attempt to remember the path to his room, nothing around here gave him any sort of helpful differentiation between this floor and the one his room was on.

And with the ever-stretching grin of his future-self, The Warden's sinking feeling was beginning to swell higher with each hasty step taken.

"This way, please." The Future-Warden cooed as he turned a sharp corner, gesturing beseechingly.

He grumbled as he followed along, spewing short cursed under his breath. The other Warden had stopped in front of a metal door that did not have a plaque to mark it's purpose.

"What's in there?" The Warden asked, taking another cautious step back.

"Insight." The other replied, swinging the door open lightly, offering his younger-self to enter first.

"Either you come in voluntarily or I will pull you in by your ears." The other began to tap his foot impatiently after the few seconds of the Warden's hesitation had finally reached it's peak on his nerves.

He moved to reach out for him, expecting him to jump but found his threat had been just the ticket to motivate his past-self inside.

"Coulda just asked nicely."

"Oh, I don't _do _'nice'." The other quickly slammed the door shut, a series of beeping sounded, signaling its secure lock.

The Warden looked about his current surroundings, confused concerning this room's function.

A desk and a few chairs had been set neatly in the middle, a few buttons maintaining different properties protruded out on the surface just in front of the most elaborate of chairs. The little light that had been provided inside was fed through the view of the room on the other side of the massive window that made up most of the wall. The now-stirring Captain lay on his stretcher, still tightly strapped to it's rails.

The Warden did not like where this was going, and he would have much preferred slaving away on his broken machine than to sit through whatever the Future-Warden had planned for him.

The other made his way to his seat, being the more extravagant of the few others. His fingers tapped rhythmically in the air before softly glazing over a single button.

"Oh good, you're awake." He spoke, his eyes seeming to pierce through the pane of glass in front of him.

"The Interrogator will be in to deal with you shortly."

The Captain gave no vocal response. He only shut his eyes and pulled sharply on one of his binds.

The Warden's stomach wretched a little; a feeling that conflicted with his mind. He had seen far more horrendous sights before, and if the truth be told he quite enjoyed the displays of gore and violence his lovely inmates provided him on a daily basis. This however, knowing he had been a victim of it himself, was not something he planned on witnessing again.

"I'd really rather not watch this, if it's all the same to you."

"Of course you would. Aren't you even the tiniest bit intrigued?"

He was, the tiniest bit, but not enough so to inspire the intent to stay. And knowing the door had been locked, it's key-bearer showing no sign to fulfill his desire to leave, the Warden sighed in defeat, taking his place in one of the chairs.

"How long is this going to take?"

The other Warden laced his fingers together, touching the tips of his thumbs to his chin.

"It varies, depending on how well Howl can do her duty. Speaking of which,"

He removed his hands from his face, his finger pressing one of his medals.

"Howl! It's very rude of you to keep our guest waiting!"

He lifted his finger, waiting for her response. His smirk had become tucked just under his ears as he imagined her furious reply.

_"I'm on my way." _She replied disappointingly flat to her employer.

The Future-Warden propped his feet on the desk, rocking his foot back and forth as he and his counterpart waited for her to arrive.

The Warden examined the Captain, he couldn't quite figure out the expression he bore. Under the smears of sweat and dust that smudged his face, the man looked, surprisingly, to be anticipating the fate that lied ahead. He certainly did not have the appearance of a man who had given up, something that only added to the other Warden's vulturous smile.

Their attention diverted to the opening door and soon, the person who had opened it. The Captain lifted his head, his own smirk appearing faintly on his mouth.

Though Penna was for the most part a far more improved sight than when she had first arrived in this room, having returned to her royal-blue and deep-red uniform; she found her hair to be untameable, even more than her messy bun normally conveyed, and her spectacles set askew on the end of her nose.

_"Finally! Get on with it Howl, I don't have all day." _The voice of he other crackled through the speaker just under the camera in the high corner.

She fired him a glare through her side of the deeply-tinted window. She couldn't see where he was, but she knew he could see her distress just fine. She clutched her notebook firmly, pulling out her pen to accompany it.

"'Howl'?" The Captain asked, his voice just as ferocious as ever, though understandably strained from his current state of self.

"What happened to 'Penelope'?"

Penna took a deep breath before approaching him, she contemplated saying noting in response but found her mind unable to restrain itself.

"That isn't my name."

"Obviously. What is your name?"

She carefully set her notes down on the free section of mattress that his bulky body did not occupy. She turned over his arm, expecting him to resist but found he allowed her to examine the cords that leaked from his skin. Good, everything was in working order.

"Well?" He asked again.

"This will go along a lot faster if we just skip the talking." She replied, quickly averting her eyes to her notes.

"No talking? What kind of interrogation is this?"

Penna gently scoffed in response, rolling her shoulders in a soft shrug. She turned toward the counter, pulling the trolley along with her. She picked up a small glass bottle and examined it's label carefully. She placed it carefully on the shining surface of the trolley , quickly following it with a thin syringe. She placed a few hand-towels along with them as well, setting them limply on the edge.

The Warden eyed her movements, he couldn't keep himself looking away from her enigmatically-solemn expression as she turned back into his view.

He looked again to the Captain, whose anticipation was beginning to show much more prominently now.

Penna wheeled the trolley next to the stretcher, giving another look over the Captain's connections. She picked up the bottle once more, the syringe with her other hand. She tipped the bottle upside-down, allowing the rubber cap to meet the tiny needle until at last it was punctured.

She pressed against the plunger with her index finger, tugging it downward to fill it with a clear, nearly transparent liquid. She removed the needle, flicking the tip a few times to rid the syringe of any air bubbles that may have been caught inside.

She hesitated for a moment, the Captain's arm was still offered to her. His grin almost taunting her to continue. She silently inhaled another deep breath, trying so hard to calm the anxiety plaguing her nerves.

She pressed the tip of the needle to his flesh, his ripe vein pulsating lightly under her force.

"You're supposed to warn me of a slight pinch, aren't you?" The Captain chuckled lowly as his skin was punctured deeper.

Penna said nothing, she only pushed down the plunger, injecting him slowly with the clear liquid. In a matter of seconds the volume inside the syringe had been depleted.

She stepped back, setting the empty syringe next to the glass bottle. She picked up her notebook once more, drifting over to grab a stool.

She pushed aside the trolley , to make room for her seat. She held her note up to her face, to avoid looking at the Captain's for as long as possible.

"Are you always this quiet?" The Captain chuckled again. His voice, while deep and commanding, was now slowly becoming a low, raspy hush. His breathing had become heavier as well, his eyes beginning to droop.

"No," Penna replied, much calmer now, replacing her notes on the free space she had previously set it.

"I'm told I talk far too much." She added with a chuckle of her own.

"You know, I must say Penelope, it's fortunate for yourself that I found myself captured before I could expose your identity to my forces." His eyes closed, his smile still as tucked as ever.

"I _told _him I wasn't cut out for espionage."

There was a moment of silence between the two; Penna flipping through her notes, the Captain allowing the sedative to course it's way.

Finally, after looking him over once more, she spoke again.

"I can't promise that you won't be in any pain, but I can promise you won't remember if you were."

"How did a nice girl like you end up with the likes of him?"

Penna lowered her eyes, the smile she forced was far more saddened than she meant to let escape.

"I'm not that nice." She retorted, catching his obvious hint of sarcasm.

Just as the Captain opened his mouth to respond, it closed. Soon a peaceful look of sleep wiped away his smirk.

Penna kept her eye on the Captain, making sure he was actually asleep. She too followed his example and shut her eyes, her own breathing becoming heavier in a further attempt to calm herself.

_"Remember Howl, I want him alive."_

She shot another glare at the window, creating quite a rustle with the turning pages of her notebook. She shook her head, continuing her calming demeanor.

"What's she doing?" The Warden piped up, keeping his intensive gaze on her and the unconscious Captain.

"Taking her sweet time by the looks of it." The other snarled.

"Apparently," The Future-Warden gestured to the window.

"It requires a lot of concentration on her part."

He slammed his fist on the desk, causing the Warden to jump a little in his seat.

"She's too slow! If she ends up killing this one, that's it. I don't even know why I keep her around."

"I-I'm sure she still has her uses."

The other turned his head, he cocked a brow, his grin returned.

"Oh don't tell me you _like _her, Warden."

"That's not it. I just think-"

"Trust me _Warden,_ she _isn't _your type."

"I think I can figure out my type for myself thanks!" The Warden shot out of his chair, his pointed stance trying to convey a more threatening air than his voice would allow.

"Oh yes," His future-self rolled his eyes, placing his hands on his hips.

"Because we _all _know your wonderful record with women."

"Listen here you-"

"Shh! It's starting!"

The Warden growled at his counterpart for a moment before turning his attention to the window.

The previously peaceful face of the Captain had now become tense and twitching. And though he lay still, he began to groan faintly, his expression contorting into one that could suggest he were suffering a nightmare.

Penna remained still as well, donning the same tormented look.

All at once the Captain's eyes clenched tight. He began to pull and thrash against his binds. The sound of straining leather did little to cover up his now more prominent cries.

Penna clutched her head, her fingers digging into her skull. This continued between the two of them for quite a while. She carefully reached for her pen, finally able to move a little, keeping a tight hold to herself with the other hand.

As soon as it touched the page, her pen began to write furiously, filling page after page in only a matter of seconds. The Captain continued to jerk about, as if the more she wrote down, the more pain it caused him.

The Warden couldn't take his eyes away, even though the sickly feeling drowning him suggested he do so. They both looked to be under so much torture.

"Remember Warden," The other spoke gently, wrapping his arm around his past-self's shoulder.

"She did the same thing, _this_, to you."

The Warden shoved the other's arm away, leering at him through his yellow-tinted glasses.

"I highly doubt she had the same intent, or performed on her own accord."

"Perhaps not, but it is something to think about."

The Warden hissed, folding his arms across his chest as he returned to his seat.

Suddenly the cries from the Captain had turned into piercing shrieks. His body twisted in seizing bursts, resisted against his binds. A small stream of blood trickled out of his nose, clinging to his sweat-speckled face and hair.

Penna's hands had found their place again, clawing away at her temples. Her head had been lowered over the edge of the stretcher's mattress, a small pool of her own blood began to collect next to the Captain's side.

"This is really the only part of her job I actually look forward to." The Future-Warden chimed, his tone trailing off into a higher note to emphasize his excitement. He leaned in further, his eyes gleaming at the sight of his tool at work.

"Doesn't look that enjoyable to me."

"If you knew her like I know her, you would be feeling just the same. Not to worry though, I'm sure you two will meet again in your future. I'm almost certain of it."

"Why would I want to find someone who I clearly despise in the future?"

The other relaxed himself a little, taking a careful moment to find the right words.

"As much as I _hate _to admit it, Howl has been... Very beneficial to my success over the insurgents. But her usefulness is beginning to cut short. Now that I have my lovely new Jailbot-X, I hardly require the ins and outs of the enemies' bases."

He paused, enjoying the angered scowl on his past-self's face at the mention of his creation.

"Why, you witnessed it yourself how quickly that little sandbox was destroyed. It would have been wiped out even sooner had I not had to avoid the possibility of hitting Howl."

The Warden did not respond to this, instead his attention was again directed at the window. The screams had stopped, the Captain's thrashing with them. Penna remained hunched over, the sound of her heavy panting echoing through the intercom.

She swallowed hard, trying to clear her mouth of the blood that festered into her throat. She wiped her brow, her eyes lidded, barely open. She sniffed again, blindly grabbing a towel to dab her face free of the caked-on mess that began to dry on her upper lip.

She stood slowly, gingerly picking up her notes. She tucked her pen into her vest pocket, with her other hand she moved the bit of hair that clung to her cheek away.

_"Just where do you think you're going, Howl?"_

_"I need a drink." _She spat bitterly, turning her still-bloodied nose in the air.

She took small steps to the door, her legs felt less and less real to her with every passing second.

The Future-Warden turned to his counterpart, glancing from him to his Interrogator rapidly. He arose from his chair, making a quick haste for the door. He punched in the unlock code, eying the Warden, who only stood speechless, all the while.

He reached for his arm, pulling the younger Warden out of his trance.

"You look a little pale, Warden," He spoke in a low, menacing tone as he yanked him toward the opening door.

"Why not join her for a cool drink?"

"N-no I'm fine!" The Warden protested, tugging away at the firm grip on his arm, finding it too late as he was pushed into the hall. The door slammed shut, the locking-beeps were the only response from his future-self.

The Warden slowly turned his head at the sound of leather-bound papers being dropped on the linoleum floor.

"Um..."


	24. Chapter 24

"Y-You... What are you doing here?"

The Warden gulped, backing against the door he didn't want to believe had been locked. The face the Interrogator wore had been painted in a similar disbelief as she too fumbled in her stance.

He cleared his throat, about to explain himself just as Penna's expression morphed into an unsettling anger. And combined with the tiny stream of blood still oozing from her nose, she looked quite a distraught sight indeed.

"You saw that did you?" She spoke in an eerily calm tone that in no way matched her face, kneeling down to pick up her notebook and pen.

He already had his suspicions that what he just witnessed went further than just a lesson in insight according to his future-self; Penna's demeanor proved that almost instantly.

"Yeah, that was um..." He struggled to find the right words, still attempting to melt away behind the locked door.

"What did you think? _Impressive_, right?" She hissed, tightening her grip around her pen. She narrowed her gaze, as if to accuse him for what had just happened.

The Warden stiffened up, not at all amused by her threatening tone.

"That's why he brought you up here, _isn't it_, to see his little Interrogator at work?" The calmness of her voice had disappeared completely. The hostility aimed at him inspired his own rising anger as he took a step away from the door.

"Now wait just a minute-"

"Well let me tell you something _Warden_," Penna clutched her pen tighter as she took a few steps closer, her knuckles beginning to shine a dull white.

"You are insanely lucky that I had the restraint enough _not _to kill you as soon as I found out who you were." She folded her arms across her chest, as if to imply herself exercising the same restraint not to lash at him with her pen.

"W-What the hell is _that_supposed to mean!" The Warden shouted back, throwing his arms to his sides. What call did she have to show her temper to him? He hadn't done anything wrong!

Penna ground her teeth. She felt unable to restrain herself any longer. She had held her tongue long enough, and if the younger Warden was the only person unfortunate enough to hear just what it was she had to say, then so be it.

The Warden tapped his foot, demeaning some explanation for her unnecessary rudeness.

"I am _not_ some tool you can use for your _own _personal gain!" She cried, jutting herself forward as if to propel her anger even more.

"I never said _you _were! There is no need to shout at me about it either!" He placed his now clenching fists firmly on his hips. Just who did she think she was talking to anyway?

"There is every reason to shout, Warden! You two are just the same, no regard for anyone-"

"How _dare _you!" Now he was just as furious as she, rolling up his sleeve to point a warning finger.

"I am _vastly_ different than that _maniac_! I didn't want to watch you melt that guy's brain, I don't even want to _be_here at all!"

Penna opened her mouth to retort but found herself interrupted again.

"And you're one talk! If this were my time you wouldn't last a day in _my _SuperJail with that kind of attitude! Honestly it's a wonder he hasn't had you bumped off already!"

"What do you know about it, huh! Do you even have the _slightest _concept of what I've been through!"

The Warden grunted, quickly growing tired of this nonsense.

"Do you have any concept of what _I've _been through? You try building a time-machine that not only I've made impossible to replicate it seems..."

He paused for a moment, tapping his chin at this realization before snapping back into his pointed stance.

"But also gets destroyed along with my life's work! And I _do_ mean my life's work as I have spent my _entire_ existence _perfecting_ my _glorious_SuperJail, and look at where I am now!"

Penna remained still, even as he huffed about with pointed fingers. She gripped her arms tighter, trying to channel even the slightest bit of her temper in her clutched sleeves.

"Oh yeah and not to mention, not only was I shot, _twice_," He stomped his foot as he took a step closer, baring his teeth in a low snarl.

"But had to endure your little _mind-rapist _game! And I have to say Howl, I-"

"What did you call me?" Her voice creaked out, strained by her frustration.

The Warden relaxed himself a little, noticing his attempt to strike a nerve had succeeded.

He had tried his best to be as gentlemanly as possible, and would have explained this whole situation had she not been so keep to chew him out for absolutely nothing at all!

"Now that you mention it, why _does _he call you 'Howl'? I've been curious about that for the longest time." He trailed off wistfully.

The sound of the unmarked door opening broke their glaring away from one another. The Future-Warden stepped slowly into the hall, visibly trying to hide his obvious glee with a disconcerted scowl.

Penna's already furrowed brow deepened at the sight of her employer. She took a step back, making her way to the interrogation room.

"My heavens, what is all this racket out here? Howl! I believe your little break is over, our friend Daniel needs attending too don't you think?"

The other Warden glowered with a villainous smile, gesturing to the room behind her. As he moved to return his hand, he placed it on his counterpart's shoulder, giving his younger-self a few gentle pats as if to congratulate him.

The Warden, not entirely comfortable with the other's obvious attempt to rile them up, bitterly allowed himself to be patted. He was still seething from Penna's outrageous accusations and figured this would be one more way to have the last word so to speak.

She leered at the both of them, her nails digging their way deeper into her forearms.

"Why don't you ask him yourself, Warden? Now is your chance."

She turned away at that moment, heading back to disdainfully complete her interrogation. The Warden felt himself jump at the sudden slam of the door.

He pushed his future-self's arm off his shoulder, adding a huff of heavy distaste.

The other simply retracted his hand to place it on his chest.

"Now, now Warden, there is _hardly _a need for any further hostility. However," He calmly, and with an obviously-facaded sincerity gestured to the other room.

"There _is _still more to see."

The Warden thought for a moment, weighing his current predicament in his mind. He was still quite upset, and mostly likely would be for a while. He hadn't fully understood the point of all this, nor was he in the right mood to care.

"I am not interested in your little 'show-and-tell' parade." He replied firmly, dramatically flicking a spot of dust off his shoulder that may not have actually been there. He hesitated for a second before taking a step, waiting to feel the violent grasp on his collar from his counterpart.

The Future-Warden only nodded, still wearing that false understanding.

"You have a machine to fix anyway." He gestures for the Warden's dismissal, trying with every ounce of strength in himself not to betray just how pleased he was.

The Warden took off without a word, glancing over his shoulder only once to cast a hateful sneer at his future-self.

The other gently gave the unmarked door a light push, seemingly gliding inside on the air of his own satisfaction. He eyed his Interrogator as she clumsily looked over the still and lightly-panting Captain. She unclasped his leather-bound wrists with shaking hands, letting them dangle by their straps on the edge of the stretcher.

As if she'd heard him enter his side of the room her head shot up. Her heavy, fatigued eyes looked to be even more weighed down with tears that so desperately cried against her determination to keep them in place.

_"You can relax, Howl." _The other spoke snidely through his intercom.

_"He is none the wiser about you, I spared him that dreadfully boring story for now."_ He threatened.

_ "Though, I must congratulate you both on such a spectacular performance! Honestly I didn't expect this passing fancy to work out quite this well." _He laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back in his chair, his mangled grin plastered over most of his face.

Penna looked to the Captain for a moment. There was still a bit of time left before his sedative wore off, she could afford one last argument for a few minutes more.

"Yes, well done. You brought him here to watch me work. Fantastic." Her voice had become a lot more strained as she fought to keep her humiliating emotions in check.

She wouldn't allow him to see this bothered her any more than she already had. Any betrayal of sadness or regret only tightened the chain that linked her to further imprisonment.

She turned to clean up the mess of bloodied towels and used syringes that lie on the trolley aside the stretcher. She kept her eyes away from the window, as if keeping herself from looking at the man she already couldn't see would help her distress.

The other's finger danced playfully over the intercom button before cooing his reply.

_"It's not just about that my dear, I need to make sure my reality will exist as it should when he arrives in his appropriate time."_

Penna inwardly winced. She knew where he was going with this. Still, she continued to busy herself with tidying up.

"And here I thought you didn't like me. I guess I'll have to try harder." She replied as calmly as she could, placing the tiny glass bottle on it's proper shelf.

_"Don't be so full of yourself Howl! You are nothing to me but a tool for my own succession! And a practically useless one at that! I will not have my plans to rule this pitiful world the way I see fit ruined by that flamboyant ninny and a freak like you." _The other Warden snapped, his smirk fading into a grimace.

"I am _not _a freak." She hissed. She had reclaimed a bit of her defiance, using it to push away that annoying twinge of self-pity that had overcome her.

The Future-Warden's grin returned, and had it been possible, it seemed to stretch even wider.

_"A coward then." _He retorted, a snicker caught in his throat.

_"Tell me, what would you have done if I had told him as you suggested? Would you have begged him to spare you as well? Not to worry, I'm sure you'll have your chance again in the near past, _Howl_. Such a fitting name for you, don't you think? I can't imagine those horrid noises you made to inspire any other."_

"Don't be so sure you'll actually find me, 'in the near past', sir." The amount of strength it took to speak her words clearly, without stuttering or projecting her fear instead of her loathing... It amazed her that she still possessed that amount.

The other did not feel the need to respond further. He could clearly see behind her adamant stance that he had crippled her.

A slight groan and the rustle of sheets frittering about diverted their attention from one another.

"W-where am I?" The once ferocious voice of the Captain had now become severely unwary, riddled with confusion. He searched around frantically, giving off a frightened spasm.

Penna kept her deepened glare on the one-sided window for a moment before turning her attention to the bewildered Captain. She cleared her throat, forcing herself to form that cheerful, yet exhausted smile she would normally wear in this situation.

"It's alright, just relax." She said calmly, placing her hand gently on the man's arm. "Tell me, what is the last thing you remember, Colonel?" She had hesitated whether to introduce the befuddled former-Captain to his new title. This much new information this soon could have drastic effects. She had to play this carefully, or risk losing him to the utter collapse his mind could suffer.

The Captain looked at her for a moment as he searched his blurred mind for an answer. He muttered a bit, breaking his gaze to examine himself a little more.

"I..." He groaned, pulling his wrist to clutch his aching head, only feel the protesting of his limp arms.

"It's fine I promise, just calm down for me." Penna nodded. As the Captain closed his eyes, she shot another glare to her employer, as if to say _'He's alive you prick, are you happy?'_.

The Future-Warden's response to this heated stare was a chuckle seemingly caught by the gap in his teeth.

The Captain swallowed hard, his throat had become very dry from his previous screams, unbeknownst to him however. She held up her index finger to excuse herself, fetching a clean washcloth to dampen with cold water.

He continued to struggle to remember what had happened to him, finding his thoughts clouded by an unforgiving fog.

Finally something returned, a look of shock adding to his already confused expression.

Penna had returned to dab his forehead with the cloth before he had a chance to form his blotched memory into words.

"I remember an explosion... I was injured in a battle?" He trailed off, uncertain about his own memory.

He continued to look to her for answers. Her expression was too difficult for him to read, even if had been able make sense of his own emotions. The cold compress did well to ease his pain, but it would take much more than that to rid him of the plaguing feeling of having forgotten something very important.

"That's right," Penna confirmed for him. "Can you remember your name?" Her gentle, but tired voice became stern for a moment, stressing the importance of that particular piece of information.

"M-My name? My name is... David." A wave of relief washed over the both of them, more so visible on the... Colonel's face than hers.

He inhaled a deep breath, feeling much more confident now. Now that he had gotten that out of the way, he felt more of his memories returning. Slowly of course, but much clearer now.

"My name is David, I am a Colonel in the Warden's army. I was..." The ferocity in his voice had returned, but quickly faded as he struggled to recall the tiny, yet significant details of how exactly he ended up here. It was all right there he just couldn't grab a hold of it.

"I remember something falling on top of me... Rubble from the blast I think." He still sounded unsure of himself.

"Very good, yes. You were unable to escape in time, but thankfully we were able to find you before it was too late. How does your head feel? You were hit pretty hard." She glanced to her notebook, remembering what she had specifically written down for him.

"How long have I been out?"

"You have been unconscious for the six days after the accident."

He nodded along, accepting that span of time sounded right to him, though he was in no fit state of mind to know for sure. Still, it _felt_ right to him.

Penna had practiced this sort of speech many, many times, with a remarkable conviction that until just recently, she had begun to believe herself. Though most of her victims, detainees, subjects, what-have-you, died in this tiresome process; she had been able to almost perfect this kind deceit.

The Colonel clutched his aching temples, rubbing them quite feverishly. He could only give a groan in response, unable to describe the pain he felt.

She began to feel her anxiety burst through the emotion-suppressing barricades she had put so much effort into bracing the longer she was forced to carry out this task. She returned her attention to the Colonel once more, offering him another cheerfully-exhausted smile.

"You'll be good as new in no time, you just need some rest."

"But my station! My duties! I-I'm fine really I-"

"No." Penna shook her head once, replacing the dampened rag back onto his forehead. The Colonel fell silent, accepting that he was indeed nowhere near 'fine' at all.

"Right now, your job is to stay here and recuperate. The Warden has given you a three-day leave-of-absence, I _highly_ suggest you accept it without a fuss." She turned for her leave, taking care to remember her notebook and pen.

"Thank you, Miss Howl." The former-Captain replied, shutting his eyes for a chance at voluntary-unconsciousness.

Penna nodded one final time, silently gathering her things and quietly head out the door. As soon as it closed behind her, the vulturous smirk of her employer was all the motivation she needed to run the opposite way.


	25. Chapter 25

The Warden pound his fist against the sterile-white hall as he stormed down it'd path, shaking off the dull pain only to pound against it again.

His mind swam in his anger. How dare the two of them treat him so horribly? How was he supposed to know that things would have gotten so bad? He'd done well enough to admit his mistakes, which for him may as well have been the one impossible feat he couldn't perform.

By some divine intelligence, he had managed to find his way back to the surveillance room. He wasn't sure if Jared would still be there or not, nor did he really care. He wasn't about to go back to his room, and this was the only familiar place he knew of.

Inside, mildly surprised, sat Jared in his swivel-chair. A satisfied, yet impatient smile rested just under his exaggerated mustache.

He lifted his short, stubby leg across his knee in a lazed sweep.

The Warden pulled back his own chair, disgruntled, plopping down in a pout as he had before. He slowly turned his head to glare at his former assistant. He looked upon him as though it was his fault; as though he hadn't tried hard enough to stop him from bursting into that godforsaken Observation room.

Jared only shrugged and fiddled with a few knobs and buttons on his desk.

"I take it the trip went well then?" He snickered, eying the disheveled Warden up and down a few times.

"Oh yes! Absolutely!" The Warden cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"Let's just reiterate that lovely trip shall we? That... Horrible, ugly abomination that _lunatic_ has the _audacity_ to associate with the name 'Jailbot' puts on this _gaudy _light-show," He twirled his wrist in the air for emphasis.

"Then out of nowhere he pulls up _Howl_ and that Captain- and let me tell you I sure do feel sorry that guy. Oh! And not to mention I was _forced_to watch that scrawny, know-it-all Interrogator melt the poor guy's brain like it was nothing and-"

Jared held up his hand to stop him.

"I know you'll be the first to disagree, I've never really considered myself to be petty, sir, but I have always wanted to say this to you; I told you so."

The tiny, empowered man folded his arms smugly across his chest. He smirked again, his eye glinting with a satisfaction he'd been saving up for quite some time.

The Warden tensed in his chair, grinding his teeth as he tried to regain control of his anger. Not Jared too, he thought. He'd had quite enough scolding for one day.

"As for _Miss_Howl," Jared continued, furrowing his brow. "She's not had it easy here either."

"So what! She didn't have to scream at me about it! I don't know how he... _I_can put up with that!"

"She's useful." Jared replied, pulling out a fresh cigar. He chewed on the end of it for a moment before tearing it off with his teeth, discarding the crumpled piece in his ashtray. He decided to wait a moment to light it, not wanting to endure the complaints of his commander's counterpart.

"I'll admit she gets carried away, but like most people associated with you; she is well within her right to be as cross as she is."

"And what exactly is _that_supposed to mean, Jared?" The Warden matched his posture, folded arms, crossed legs and a deepened brow.

"I'm trying to take over the world right? Well useful or not I don't think there's much room for a mouthy, disobedient woman in _my_army."

"She didn't ask for the job, Warden, you gave it to her." Jared paused, letting him consider this information, dispute knowing he most likely wouldn't.

"You know she was captured, right? It was sheer coincidence you just happened to pick her for 'Dissection', and she just happened to be able to possess the power she's got."

"'Dissection'?" The Warden repeated, his curiosity piqued.

Jared took this opportunity to light his cigar, taking a long and relaxing drag, expelling it's relief into the air aside him.

"Our cells were overcrowded from the civilian attacks, and the insurgents had yet to form the alliances they have now against us. There was time to spare before the next likely retaliations so the Doctor decided to have a little... Err, 'fun'. Not only to make room, but to test some of our newest weapons and such."

"And Howl-"

"_Miss_ Howl survived her torture. It _was_ torture, Warden. She demonstrated her ability in order to save herself, and it worked. Give her some credit, she might be mouthy but we, _you_would not be as far as you are now without her."

The Warden sank back, absorbing Jared's words much to his instinctive protesting. Though he was, without any hesitation, a care-free, does-just-as-he-pleases-when-he-pleases soul, the Warden was not incapable of seeing reason; though he chose to ignore it most of the time. He had to admit that before their spat, he would have sided with Penna or anyone for that matter against his future-self. Even now he still resented the man.

He sighed, feeling a dim tug of guilt poking away at his conscious. Shaking his head to be rid of it, his eye caught a shade of deep red and royal blue passing by on a monitor above Jared's head. The view of a rooftop splayed out, underneath blinked it's label, '_F37 -CAMERA 37L_'

His options were set in front of him. He could just sit here and sulk, though the smell of Jared's cigar was beginning to add to the headache he could feel coming on, or he could go back to his room and mess around with his machine. The realization of lacking replacement parts dampened his wanting to continue but how else was he supposed to get out of here? Figuring out what exactly went wrong _is_a start after all.

As Jared poured out another cloud of smoke from his nostrils, the Warden stood and made his way for the door.

It took him a good minute to find the lift again, but as he did he wasted no time in calling it. The doors opened the instant the code was entered and he stepped inside. Now he just had to remember which floor his room was on.

As he looked over the rows of black, numbered buttons his eyes stopped at two digits. Thirty-seven. His finger absentmindedly pushed down the little dot, the hum of the elevator bringing him out of his trance. He sighed again, tapping his foot. He might as well get _this_over with too.

The lift halted after a few moments, allowing the Warden to cautiously step out into the hallway. He found this floor was not at all to his liking, though it had a very familiar feel to it.

The gray, metal walls bore a few new, a few rusted bolts their panels. The distant dripping of leaky pipes and the distinct smell of stagnant water hung in the stuffy air. He felt like he was walking into one of his cells. He noticed the steel doors had letters on them, much like the bolts, some were new and some were weathered.

It seemed now that he was being guided by something only his subconscious was aware of. He knew he was looking for a particular door, he just couldn't remember which. He knew he had just seen it, he just wasn't able to recall...

"Aha! Here it is!" He cheered, quickly recoiling from his success with a sense of bewilderment.

The door with a chipped letter 'L' gave a weak groan of protest as he swung it open. He looked up, his head barely out of the doorway, trying to spot the camera he now remembered that had given this area away. It was positioned just above him, a stationary light blaring a dull red. It twisted and maneuvered as if to nod that he was in the right place.

Though this was the roof, it was not a spacious and open area at first. In fact, he had to grit his teeth force himself to step fully out of the door in order to peer around a wall blocking his view.

There she was, expressionless and sitting very, dangerously close to the edge. Her notebook and pen lay beside her, pages gently flipping and curling up in the barely-noticeable breeze. She had torn out a few clean sheets and had been, by the looks of it, copying down the notes she had already taken into a clearer and far easier to read version.

He opened his mouth to spit out his sudden and unrehearsed apology but found no sound came from him.

Penna glanced over her shoulder. Though she did not expect to see the younger Warden of all people, her face showed no sign of surprise at all.

"I can't decide if this means he wins or loses." Penna stated after a moment, her voice trailing off into a oddly curious tone. She lightly rocked her foot back and forth off the edge, it's swaying movements uneven and sloppy as if she'd released control of it.

The Warden didn't, _couldn't _respond to this. His instinct was to just scratch the back of his head and slink slowly away, far away from this disaster he'd found himself in.

"You're right," Penna replied to his blank stare. She seemed a little amused, yet angry and disappointed with herself that she'd say such a pitiful thing.

"It's only another win for him. And I can't allow that... Let me ask you something, Warden."

_'Oh Lord, what now?_' He thought, bracing himself for another barrage like before.

"Would you consider it- _that_, murder?"

He wasn't expecting that. Or maybe he was; perhaps he wasn't expecting the lack of shock her inquiry inspired.

"Uh, well," He began, once again having trouble finding his words. He wasn't used to not having anything to say in response.

Being well versed in murder of every shade, as his line of work so beautifully provided him, it took him a painful moment of consideration before he could give her an answer.

Penna interrupted him just as his train of thought began to run as smooth as it could under the circumstances.

"Think about it, they, what makes them _them_is destroyed. Then it's replaced with something entirely different. Whatever made them the person they were is gone forever. Isn't that the same as killing?"

_'Kind of, I suppose.'_He thought, though he figured voicing his honest opinion wouldn't help any. He shook his head, forcing a serious expression.

"Well, not if they survive, right?" He shrugged, heaving a chuckle. Judging by that solemn expression of hers, the same one she wore as she dealt with the Captain, he figured that she wasn't really looking for an answer; she already knew it and his hesitation only provided her with more evidence.

The Warden frantically searched his mind for a change of subject.

"So, uh... What are you doing out here?"

Penna looked at him, puzzled. Was this his attempt at an apology? She laughed in her mind at the thought.

"I'm doing what any normal person would do after something like that. What's it called... '_Reflecting'_."

For a reason or two he could not explain, he was relieved to hear her sharp sarcasm return.

She patted the patch of concrete next to her, the side of herself her notebook didn't occupy, offering him a seat. He hesitated to take it, and only did so keeping a fair distance between them.

"What were you doing before...y'know?" He figured he should try and say something to take their minds, more so his than hers, off of what had just occurred.

He felt a twinge of regret, realizing that asking this, especially now after her 'Am I really a murderer' lamentation, was probably not the best subject for after an obviously-failed attempt at small-talk.

"Before this lovely adventure?" Penna scoffed, tossing her hands in the air. She pulled out her pen to examine it, giving herself an excuse not to look him in the eye.

"I was...Living. I had a life. I had a job. Kept my head down and minded my own."

"Oh, a job? What line of work were you in?" His enthusiastic smile could not cover up the intensive and quite obvious uneasy feeling beginning to cloud him.

Penna scoffed again, much softer this time. She knew what he was trying to do, and though she did appreciate his efforts to clear the air between them, she couldn't force herself to appear thankful.

"Well, I say 'job' but, it didn't earn much money. I worked for my mother for the most part." She finished toying with her pen, feeling a little more confident now. She heaved herself back from the edge and used her arms to brace herself as she leaned against the cool, concreted wall.

"She ran this in-home, palm-reading clinic. Again, I _say_'clinic' but..." She trailed off into a low, snide, snicker. She paused. She knew what he was wanting to get at, and if it would hasten this conversation between them even the slightest bit more, she might as well jump right to it.

"I've been able to do _this_," She lazily gestured from her head to her notebook, melancholy-ridden with every word.

"Since I can remember. But never as good as her. Not even now." Her saddened-smile returned. In truth, she was glad she couldn't compare herself to her mother. She didn't feel as though she deserved the honor.

"Oh! So, are there others like you then?" He'd managed to continue his feigned tone of interest, though it sounded far more exaggerated than sincere.

Penna cringed a little, playing it off with another soft chuckle. Either he didn't know the harm that phrase actually caused, or he was even more fiendishly clever than he let on. She had to remind herself that those two in their own aspects were and weren't the same person. When her employer had asked that question, it had been riddled with disgusted accusations.

"We never really talked about it. It was always this sort of unspoken understanding; it was best not to go on about it. I can't say I haven't wondered; but my mother wasn't bothered by it and eventually, neither was I." She shrugged.

"She always had this look about her; she could tell what it was you were thinking, even before the thought crossed your mind. She wasn't...manipulative, no. Nor unkind. She was a good mom, she did the best with what she had."

The Warden listened quietly, now having fully regretted asking. He wasn't good with this sort of thing; empathy wasn't an emotion he was used to possessing, or expressing for that matter. He was highly uncomfortable in this situation and longed for the first opportunity to sprint out of it.

"W-Well, I'm sure she'd be proud of you putting it to..err, good use?" What on earth was he suppose to say to her? Wasn't it just a minute ago he was condemning her to Jared?

Penna looked up. She slowly turned her head toward him, her usual sarcastically-irritated demeanor had replaced her previous distant expression. She stared at him, her mouth slightly agape in disbelief of what she'd just heard.

"What?" He asked, returning her gaze with his own confused look. He began to lean away, as if he could hide through the wall, away from the awkwardness that hung above them.

"I'm waiting for the punchline."

"Um..."

Penna rose, silently picking up her pen and notebook. She looked at the cemented edge once more, marveling at the distance between themselves and the ground below. For a moment she felt as though her entire weight had lifted, and even the slightest breeze could have drifted her away.

"I think I'd better go check on _David._"

"Who?"

"David? You know, the Captain. Didn't you see him?"

"No, no I didn't."

"Oh, well, he's _alive._I succeeded." She mimicked as best she could his future-counterpart's voice and mannerisms. The Warden found her impression of him to be a little humorous, chuckling uneasily along.

For a moment the apprehension, the tension and awkwardness in the atmosphere seemed to disappear. Though it didn't remain as such for long as the two took notice of it's absence, fumbling about and clearing their throats.

The Warden stood, both patting themselves off, abiding by the not-entirely illusion of reconciliation they'd just created.

Penna breathed a little sigh of relief inside herself as reached the door. She didn't look back as she twisted the knob, she didn't feel the need to.

Something else was troubling her however, though anyone would have assumed her mind was still set on the latter conversation. Ever since she'd found out about the Resistance-Capital's call for reinforcements, and seen their precise plans as far as the former-Daniel's mind had provided her, she began to formulate her own plan. She'd taken great care to neglect including this information in her notes, this was the first step and the only one she had any control over. The rest would just have to play out accordingly on it's own. She was more than content with the consequences if her fleeting fancy backfired.


	26. Chapter 26

The poor, struggling young man finally managed to crawl to the body of his brother. The last honor he could give him was to pull out the jagged piece of metal that bore out of his back. Rhod gently laid it off to the side before attempting to turn the muscular mass over. It took a few minutes as Cordin's weight put a heavy, painful strain on his wounded shoulder.

He looked at his battered and dusted face. Aside from the physical cuts and scrapes that he'd sustained from the blast, his closed eyes gave Rhod a bittersweet sense of peace. He would bury him in a moment, now the instincts of a good little soldier that had been instilled into him demanded that he find a method of communication.

For a moment his mind traveled along a tangent; there were still a few aircrafts left, how hard was it really to pilot them? His shoulder jolted, sending stinging surges through him as if to provide him with an answer. He had to agree, if only to quell the pain, it was best to let the others know what happened first and then decide.

Rhod gathered what strength he could muster, and on shaking, quivering legs he managed to stand.

He swallowed hard, able to taste in the air the destruction that expanded all around him. Most of the Captain's quarters renamed intact, apart from the devastating gap in what had once been the wall, ripped away by that menace.

The Captain's desk leaned against a chunk of charred rubble, it's drawers clinging to their sections.

Rhod could only guess, hope that his Captain's radio was in one of those drawers, and with an even greater hope, he prayed that it had not been destroyed.

He wasn't able to search through them given the position of the up-heaved desk. His heavily bleeding shoulder seared in a deep surge as the young man pulled with all his might on the weighted desk.

After a few attempts he finally coaxed it off it's resting place, a few drawers had fallen out and revealed to have nothing he could use inside them.

There was one drawer, a cabinet rather, that had not opened or even appeared to be as badly damaged as the rest of the desk. Upon further inspection, Rhod saw that a key was required to open it. His heart leaped just the slightest. This had to be it.

However that spark of relief faded almost the instant it arrived as he realized he had nothing to open it with.

He allowed his legs a chance to rest as he collapsed on the remains of the Captain's chair. For now the only thing he wanted to do was weep. Weep for his brother, for the home they had become accustomed to, even in a time of war, and for the Captain the two of them had grown to know as a father.

And just then all of his sorrow became a rage. He could blame all of this on one man. He would make him pay, he'd make that monster regret every act of evil he'd cursed the world into suffering.

His thoughts then shifted to Penelope... No wait, what had he called her? Howl. Why hadn't he seen her for what he was earlier? His brother had, and so had the Captain, why couldn't he?

He tried to think as his brother would have, remembering, though begrudgingly, the time he spent with her. He searched his mind for any instant that could have given her away. Unable to find anything in the clouds of fogged memories, combined with the screaming pain in his shoulder, he cried a whimper of defeat.

He looked to Cordin once more, chastising himself upon realizing that he would be disappointed in his little brother for worrying so much about the past. Still, he was furious. Furious with so much he couldn't quite pick apart exactly what he was more furious about. He couldn't help but wonder what that gap-toothed tyrant was doing to his Captain, torturing him no doubt.

A gleam of something shining caught in the corner of Rhod's vision. He saw the jagged shrapnel, drying itself into a sodden, black-red color.

Heaving himself up he limped over to examine it. Perhaps he could use it to break the lock. The tip of it was just thin enough to slip into the keyhole. He applied a careful concentration, ignoring with little success his seeping gash, twisting and turning the sharp metal piece into the lock.

After a few minutes he seemed to be making some progress, the silver circular ring around the lock jerked and resisted against his efforts but soon he had it all the way around. Suddenly the lock sprang out of its socket and the door broke open. Inside, like a beacon of salvation sat the Captain's radio.

Rhod instantly plucked it out and examined it for any serious damage. Thankfully it looked to be unharmed.

He flicked the tiny switch on the side of the device, breathing a heavy sigh that it remained functional. He turned the dial until the static cleared. He took another deep breath, recalling his coordinates. Placing the microphone about a hand's span away, he spoke as clear as he could.

"Resistance-Capital Four has been attacked. I repeat; Resistance-Capital Four has been attacked. Captain Byron has been captured, our base has been wiped out. As far as I'm aware I am the only survivor. Send reinforcements as soon as possible."

Rhod set the microphone down and waited for a response. The reply was almost instantaneous.

A thick, broken-English accent burst through the transmitter.

_"We received your distress signal earlier, soldier, help is already on it's way. Is there any sign of the enemy returning?"_

"Not that I can tell at the moment. They only wanted the Captain." Rhod replied in a stern, but saddened tone.

_"Gunships and medical-carriers have been sent, they should be arriving shortly."_

The transmission ended at that, resulting in a light whispering static. He slumped again, a fit of impatience and anxiety began to rise within him. What if the Warden and his army did come back? What if the reinforcements he'd just called couldn't make it in time? Or worse, what if they were attacked as well? He suddenly regretted calling for help as he had.

He turned his head to gaze at the practically untouched storage units housing his Capital's remaining trucks and carriers. Even he knew that no one would just pass up materials for the taking after spending so much time to get rid of those possessing them. He shook himself together, fretting about what could happen wasn't going to help him now.

Rhod ripped a few pieces of his tattered shirt off to tie it around his shoulder, this would have to do until his allies arrived. Now that he had something to delay the freely-flowing blood, he began to occupy his time as he waited for them to rescue him with moving aside the larger rocks and rubble away from Cordin's body. He gently stripped off the strand of bullets that wrapped around him and turned him onto his back, folding his arms across his torso.

After what seemed like hours, he had a fairly large pile and he began to outline his brother with the larger hunks, then he used the smaller ones to cover him up. Rhod placed the belt of bullets around the larger rock he intended as a sort of tombstone. Taking a step back to judge his work, he felt another twinge of sorrow overcome him.

Just then, not far off in the distance he heard the sound of propellers whirling fiercely. His first instinct was to take cover, but take cover where? He could dart behind the desk, he thought. But just as soon as that thought entered his mind it vanished, overpowered by the voice of his brother telling him not to be a coward.

He stood as tall and profound as he could, waiting for those he heard drawing closer to arrive. A glint of a deep brown and olive soon appeared before him. It wasn't but seconds later that he spotted a green star on the nose of the air carrier.

As if all the strength he had forced himself to maintain was nothing but a pitiful spasm, Rhod felt his legs fall from under him with the huge wave of relief that surrounded him.

The air carrier made for an immediate landing, a few men looking to be of a similar rank as Cordin stepped out, noticeably exhausted but resilient nonetheless. He greeted them graciously and equally exhausted and they explained that the others were waiting further along, hiding just in case of another attack.

Another few minutes to pass by and Rhod was aboard the aircraft and headed toward safety, taking one last look at the diminishing form of his brother's grave. At that moment he relayed the details of the attack and of what attacked them, though he found it hard to describe the 'X'-shaped contraption that had obliterated them in seemingly no time at all. He also told them of his suspicions that the Warden would be claiming the remains of the base for his own, and undoubtedly soon.

His rescuers were very anxious to learn more, but Rhod's weariness was effecting his ability to tell them properly. One of the men beside him unraveled the dirty makeshift bandage around his shoulder and after taking a moment to clean the wound, replaced it with a soft, fresh one.

The aircraft continued through the air, soon to regroup with the others. Though he was well on his way to a much-deserved rest, Rhod began to speak of a new-found desire of retaliation, or more appropriately, revenge.

"We could get 'em when they come to pick off our supplies!"

The two men exchanged glances before the older one replied.

"This attack has changed our plans some, quite a lot actually since we no longer have as many numbers on our side. However the forces from Cancun have been notified and they are very willing to send us as many men as we need."

"But he'll be right there! He might even come today, in a few hours! We could get 'im! We could kill 'im right now!"

"Look Private, I know the loss you're feeling and you're right to be angry but you have to think about these things. You know what he's like, it won't be him showing up to personally collect what it is he's after. He's hiding away in his hole and we have to plan carefully how to get him out."

Rhod felt what energy he had left simply drain out of him. The man was right, they couldn't risk losing any more that what they'd already lost.

"As it turns out," The man began again. "We've already set up a retaliation front just beyond the border. Once we arrive, we've only got to wait for the order."

It felt as though an overbearing weight had been lifted from his shoulders, allowing him to breathe freely, knowing every breath he took now was one for his brother. The relief was too much for him to handle on the conscious plane and with that, Rhod soon felt himself be pulled into sleep.

Away inside SuperBase, the Warden followed Penna to his counterparts office, or rather to his own room that thankfully was on the same floor. He accepted that he couldn't put off dealing with his machine any longer, though he was no more happy about it.

They said little to each other and stayed far away from the subject of Interrogations and whatever _that_had been to follow. The Warden didn't mind this at all, in fact he was glad Penna did well on her part to stray from even more awkwardness.

"I have to drop these off," She said, gesturing to intricately embellished door with her much cleaner notes.

"Your room should be down there somewhere."

"I think I'll be able to recognize it." He replied.

Penna nodded, offering him a cheerfully-fatigued smile before turning to bang on the door with a hateful scowl. The Warden didn't stick around to see if there was anyone who would answer, heading in a partial sprint down the hall.

She knocked on the door again, with an even harder force. The door swung open to reveal a glowing and gap-toothed smirk tucked under amber glasses.

"Oh good Howl, I thought you were going to keep me waiting. Come in, come in." The Future-Warden, still brimming, almost overflowing with his self-righteous succession led her into his office.

Before she had a chance to speak, he pointed to a mess of monogrammed stationary, pens and such that had littered around his desk.

"Be a dear and help me clean up, won't you?"

Penna held her tongue, though she shoved her notes into his chest as she passed him. She knelt down, facing him as she stacked the sheets of paper into a messy pile, gathering up the utensils last in one handful. She dropped them on the cold, black-metal surface as she stood, resulting in a light clatter.

He glazed over her handwritten findings, nodding along to some pieces of information happily, others he examined with a look of concern.

"Well this is certainly disappointing. Interesting, but disappointing." He groaned, making his way to his desk. He continued to look over the notes, using their excuse to keep himself distracted from her glare.

"I expected you to find more than just the location of these few camps. Are you sure you dug deep enough? You're not _slacking_ off on your duties, are you Howl?"

"It's all there." She lied, though keeping her tone as steady as possible; not entirely defeated, but not willing to fight with him now.

"If I _had_ missed anything, he would have died long before I gave him his new past. The fact that he's _alive_ as you so wanted him to be should be all the proof you need."

"Oh I'm not talking about... What name did you give him? David? No, I'm talking about _you_, Howl." The Future-Warden touched his fingertips together, his efforts to keep his grin from stretching any wider weren't making any difference.

"You seem to be quite distracted lately, and I suppose that _is_ partly to blame on my behalf-"

"Apology accepted, now I'd really like to go."

"Ah, ah. Not so fast." He held up his hand to stop her from making a break for his open door. She sighed heavily and began to tap her foot. The other Warden slowly rose from his seat, taking heavy strides across his office only to plant himself firmly in her way.

"You're forgetting something Howl," As he spoke, the other pulled from his pocket what looked to be a recording of some kind; a little black box no wider than her pen.

"You are forgetting that I had mentioned before you left that you would be under _heavy _surveillance. Ah, you remember it now don't you? Good, what else do you remember? Do you remember the details of this little attack plan the Mexican's have against me? I'm sure Captain, no no, _Colonel_ David knows, yes? It's strange, _isn't it_, that you did not include this in your notes?"

Penna remained silent for a moment, expecting him to continue. She couldn't quite explain to herself the feeling she was having. Part of her felt that cold, numbing feeling of being caught red-handed. Another part of her felt... Good. She felt as if she had finally done something good, even though it hadn't worked out. Even though it might lead to those consequences she told herself she was okay with. As the other stood there, determined to get an answer from her, Penna formed a smirk of her own.

"Actually _sir_, I don't think it's that strange at all."

The seconds that followed were far too much of a blur for her to comprehend fully. The Future-Warden took a fierce and choking hold of her collar and began to drag her into the hall. Biting, kicking, and if she had been able to find her voice she would have screamed. He paid no attention to the teeth-marks she was leaving in his leather glove and as they approached the stairwell, the other Warden kicked open the door and pulled her down the endless flight of stairs. Not once did she tell _him_ to let her go, she only continued to bite and claw away as his hand and fingers until a door marked 'Observations' was kicked open.

There was no time to flick on the light to see where he was going, though he knew the layout of the room quite well. With his free, slightly-less-chewed hand he fumbled around in the dark for the familiar feel of cool steel bars. His eyes sparked with pride that provided the only light the still struggling Penna had been able to see as he found just what he was looking for.

The sound of groaning metal swinging open, the feel of herself being thrown against the hard wall, followed by the sound of rhythmic beeping to signal her cell's successful lock had told her well enough where she was even before the slam of the door echoed throughout chilled, darkened laboratory.


	27. Chapter 27

Having found his room, the Warden was so tempted to crawl into his disheveled bed. He shook his head trying to call up some self-control within himself and with a heavy sigh he sat at his work station, looking over the blueprints.

He spent a few minutes gazing over the measurements and descriptions until finally slinking down to examine the components themselves. He began to pick apart the bits that didn't require the use of a tool to remove, saving that daunting work for last.

As far as he could tell as each piece was taken from the pearly-white dome, nothing seemed to be damaged beyond functionality. Of course there were a few singe marks on the spare rivets and wires, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be overlooked. He still had more to inspect as well.

He picked up his wrench, after looking back and forth to it several times, trying to convince himself that he didn't need it only to heave another sigh and began twisting and turning the bolts that held the more extravagant parts in place.

After some time more he finally reached the innermost intertwined pieces. With a quick turn of his wrist he dislodged a scorched metal bit, protruding wires around a corkscrewed base. It resembled a spark-plug of sorts, yet one could tell it's purpose was well beyond that.

However, the Warden examined this particular piece with a concerned brow. This was the problem, he decided. This had not been made the same way as his original had, it's form had been severely dented and the wires were frayed so much so that it would have been impossible to repair them.

He hissed under his breath, cursing his counterpart for not providing him with the proper materials for the one part that actually mattered. Then again, he should have been able to spot this problem long before it had become a problem. He hissed again, this time at himself.

The Warden continued to look from the blueprints to the little spark-plug in his hand until something struck him. His lovely, wonderful, precious Jailbot had been made of similar parts, and with the same care and hard work as his original machine had.

He began to mentally dismantle his most beloved contraption, examining each and every bolt, rivet and screw that went into his creation before a sharp pang of anger interrupted his process. _His _Jailbot was gone, already carelessly torn apart and replaced by that thing. The Warden's hands began to strangle an invisible neck as he spouted more curses directed toward his Future-self.

He paused for a moment, as the image of the other Warden's eyes bulging, gasping for air began to fade. The man might have been an inconsiderate jerk, well frankly he was quite obviously much more vicious than that; he was still the Warden after all, he was still the happy-go-lucky jailor somewhere underneath that black uniform and plum-colored cape. And any happy-go-lucky jailor that had put so much love into making himself what the Warden considered to be, essentially, his son wouldn't possibly possess the heart to toss out his innards like they hadn't mattered at all.

Jailbot was still here, in one place or maybe even several, and the Warden could find his components and use then to fix his time-machine. The only problem with that, he groaned upon realizing; where would he start looking?

The idea of searching for the storage room sent an unwelcoming chill down his spine. The idea of his Future-self throwing Jailbot's remains in there seemed highly unlikely to him; then again, hadn't he himself done the same thing before? Hadn't he also learned his lesson from that experience? One look at his surroundings, so unlike his SuperJail, sent an annoying twinge of regret through him. Obviously he hadn't.

Still trying to convince himself that Jailbot wouldn't be anywhere near Storage, the Warden began to think of other places his counterpart might have kept him.

One thought of a possible place came to him after a few moments of consideration. Though it hadn't occurred to him at the time to look around as he was far too consumed with anger to notice anything but that mechanical monstrosity, parading around in the view of the Observation room. He knew where that room was, and that was a start as good as any.

Of course, he could always ask where these parts were, though the thought of asking the other Warden for any sort of help at all was a new sort of 'low' he was not willing to sink to. He doubted Jared would help if he knew. And for similar reasons concerning his Future-self, the Warden was not willing to ask his former assistant for help either.

That was just fine, he nodded. He didn't want their help anyway. He got himself into this mess, and he could very well get himself out.

Taking the little spark-plug with him, he brushed himself free of the chipped flakes resulted from his tinkering and set off for the Observation room.

Meanwhile, the Future-Warden arrived at his assistant's office, a spacious area though quite simple in design apart from the few spare monitors displaying various feeds from a few key cameras littering the short desk.

"Sir!" The tiny man saluted quickly, rising from his chair to give his commander a proper greeting.

"I was just about to send the retrieval-party on their way."

The other Warden, seemingly humming to a tune that had no real structure simply dismissed him with a wave. He placed his arms behind his back, running his thumb over his dully aching hand.

"Not to worry about that, Jared. It seems we have other issues to deal with presently. I'm afraid we are threatened with retaliation, how soon though I am not sure, perhaps today or maybe even a week from now. Have our forces prepared as quickly as possible." Though this piece of information coming from anyone else would have been spoken with panic or at the very least concern, the Future-Warden's words slipped through him as though they were a nuisance; something to keep him from enjoying his most recent succession.

Jared nodded, saluting once more.

"Sir, what would you like done with him?" He said, referring to the younger Warden.

"I doubt he'll be in the way for us much more, no, I took care of that." The Future-Warden took his leave at that as Jared made the necessary transmissions to those in charge of their various troops.

It wasn't but minutes later that a quaking clash like thunder tore through the upper parts of SuperBase, sending tremors down it's supports to shake the very lift the Warden currently found himself in as if it were dangled on the thinnest thread.

A red light began to blaze from the rows of buttons and the lift came to a sudden stop. The sound of metallic panels suddenly locking into place could be heard within the cabin.

The Warden began to panic, pressing every button he could find in hopes one of them would get the elevator to move again. Another tremor shook him quite roughly, even more so as the lift no longer seemed to be held up by it's lead, instead it seemed to be bolted into the chamber that contained it.

Another distant rumble, this time however there was no tremor to follow. The Warden could hear very faintly a unison of propellers whirring and the even more faint sound of shouting and people hurrying about. He tried to make out as clear as he could what was being shouted. He jumped back, either from the blast he heard and felt that time within his tiny space or his own fear at the word 'attack'. They were being attacked? He tried to push that thought out of his mind, but the rocking of his elevator only forced it on him even harder.

He continued to press button after button, coaxing, begging the lift to move again. He even tried shouting for help outside the lift, banging on the doors frantically. His only response was the little red light flashing rapidly in his face.

The only thing he could think to do now was brace himself, arms and legs against the walls of his enclosure. The continuous shaking proved this to be a good idea, though his quickly rising anxiety did not allow him any praise for it.

The rumbling continued, slowly becoming increasingly louder which meant increasingly closer. The shouting had faded, though through the chaos that was undoubtedly happening beyond him, he could hear the sharp cutting through air from a carrier or two.

His poor, tiny elevator tossed him around so viciously he felt that whatever was holding this lift in place would soon break and he would plummet to his death. His timing could not have been quicker. The shriek of the panels outside the lift's casing pierced throughout the cabin space as a calamitous quiver detached the braces in one harsh, unforgiving second.

He felt instantaneously sick to his rising stomach, trying with all his might to keep his organs from slipping out of his throat as they felt as though they surely would. He had managed to take a hold of the panel of buttons as the lift fell at an alarming speed. How long his grip would last was an entirely different question; already he could feel his fingers loosen around the few inches of aluminum that so neatly kept the controls aligned.

His legs began to elevate in the shift of gravity as his sliding hold desperately tried to maintain contact. The lift was hurtling at a pace too fast to measure and on top of everything else he was trying to hold down, including himself, the Warden found it difficult to stave off the urge to vomit. Thankfully the contents of his stomach had long since digested, however dry-heaving was not at all an acceptable substitute.

He didn't have much time to concentrate on keeping his lurching under control, all at once he felt as though every breath of air he had taken in had been forced out of him as his body suddenly slammed against the floor of the lift. He had broken his nose, shattered it more like, and chipped his yellow glasses on the aluminum panel.

Writhing in the pain that immediately followed the Warden had not been able to hear the bell chiming his arrival to the first floor. The doors refused to open at for a moment, however another shudder surging throughout was just the motivation they needed to creak apart in a jerking spark-ridden spasm.

He had to cough for a few minutes more, if only to know what it was like to breathe again. His nose crinkled against his cracked glasses and after wincing quite a bit, whimpering to himself that he had to do it; he took a shaking hold of it and in one clutching grip he pulled the bloody cartilage down to it's proper place, not without expelling a shrill cry of agony.

Somewhere inside SuperBase as he was hurriedly barking orders to his fleet of soldiers, robots and what few aircrafts he had left, his counterpart clung to his face, confused and shocked at the sudden heavy twinge in his nasal passages.

Though thin and limber as he may be the Warden couldn't seem to hold himself up at first. He had feeling in his limbs, which only meant he could feel the pain every inch of him was in, still he tried to maneuver his legs to a position fit for standing. The first few tries were failures, another blast set him off balance. After holding onto his knees, giving himself somewhat of a brace he managed to keep his stance.

He looked out beyond the doors of the lift, nothing appeared to be damaged however much the attack from outside suggested it might be. His head was now quite fogged with the sudden rush of blood throughout his body, he couldn't remember exactly what it was he was looking for now.

The tiny weight of something still held in his hand reminded him instantly. His heart leaped at the sight of the right floor. The Observation room was only a two-minute's walk, or in his case a ten-minute's crawl from where he stood.

The Warden slowly placed his foot outside, judging if the floor was indeed sturdy enough to support his trembling frame. Seeing that he'd successfully taken his first step he tried the other foot. The attacks from above seemed to have ceased for the time being, building this broken wall of confidence just the slightest to reassure him as he headed down the corridor.

Though the shaking had stopped, he could still hear the mayhem going on outside and above him. He inched along the wall, almost clinging to it for support. He had to stop a few times to wipe away the blood pouring from his nose, only to flinch from it's tenderness.

Finally he reached the Observation room, twisting the handle only to find it locked. He tried knocking and to no surprise, there wasn't an answer. Shaking himself into focus, instantly regretting doing so, he pressed the first series of buttons that came to mind. The little red light above the handle changed to green and a sharp click sounded his granted access.

Upon entering he found the only light in the room was the beam cast from the hall. He fiddled around in the shadows to find the switch, tripping over his own feet in the dark.

"Are you _frightened_, Warden?" Penna's strained voice broke out.

The Warden jumped a little, falling back against the wall.

"W-what? What's going on?"

He found the light-switch and flicked it quickly. The sight of the Interrogator, fierce-eyed, gripping the iron bars of her compacted cell startled him quite a bit. She too was greatly surprised to see him, as bloodied and bruised as he appeared, still trying to catch his breath. However she only betrayed her shock for a hardly-noticeable second.

"The hell are you doing in there?" He asked blankly, looking around for any sign of Jailbot's remains. He felt a huge wave of happiness overcome him as he spotter the shining white body discarded in the far corner.

"I suppose I should be considering this as my punishment." She responded, almost pleased with herself though she remained as heated as ever in her stare.

"P-punishment? For what?"

As if on cue another quake soon shook throughout the base. Penna felt herself unable to hide her smirk in that moment.

"How bad is it out there?" She questioned, eying him up and down.

"Looks like they've got us outnumbered, I didn't expect them to get here quite this early." She finished with another smirk.

The Warden shifted his gaze from her to Jailbot, slowly stepping over to them. He wasn't sure how to feel about her in this state, as wild she looked and as eerily-satisfied she spoke. He felt something was wrong and he shouldn't stay much longer.

"Why are you here? Come to let me out?"

"I-I think I found a way to fix my machine. I didn't know you would be...down here."

Should he let her out, he thought? He could probably guess the code easily. Still that unwary feeling tugged away at his mind, telling him that she looked likely to strike at anything she could get her tightly clenched hands on.

He looked to his creation's parts once more, judging how much he could carry in one trip, and with the obviously broken lift he would have to find the stairs. He hadn't the first clue where they might be, but before him the sharp-eyed Interrogator would know.

He cleared his throat, exerting as much forced-confidence her vicious glare would allow him.

"I might need help getting this back upstairs if I'm going to make it one piece." He began to reason, gauging her reaction closely.

Her expression softened gradually and the fear of what she'd found herself in soon replaced the hollow face she tried so hard to keep up.

The Warden tiptoed to the steel door, extending his fingers along the keypad.

"Hey," Penna began, her exhaustion taking over any steadiness in her already panicked voice.

"What I said...about killing you when I had the chance, I didn't mean it."

"Oh sure you didn't." He chuckled, pressing down they 'enter' key. A series of beeps chimed from the mechanism and the heavy steel-clad door swung open with an incredible relieving ease.

He stepped to the side, allowing her to exit as she pleased. This time she was the one to clear her throat, unsure how to thank him exactly.

"Ahem... So, uh, you think you've figured it out then have you?" She said, heaving a chuckle of her own.

"Yeah, I don't know why I didn't see it before. I'm just hoping this time the thing actually works." He sighed, looking over the functionless frame of his beloved masterpiece.

Penna peered over his shoulder, still carrying a doubt that she had actually been set free so soon. She expected at any second for the other to come bursting in and forcing her back into the cell.

"Jailbot?"

"Yes- here can you hold this?" He spoke, concentrated in his tone as he pushed his thumb against a latch, causing the 'chest' piece to pop up. He gently handed her the wide yet thin sheet of metal.

It felt shockingly light in her hands, making it easy to do as requested. Though she would have done so regardless, feeling the need to express her gratitude in some way.

The Warden began to pick apart what was left inside the nearly empty shell, setting bits and pieces that were far too complex for her to describe, despite seeing many similar things in her employment.

He examined the little spark-plug in his hand and was about to decide which parts to take and which to leave until a shudder so loud and so forceful knocked the two of them down.

Heads swimming and ears ringing, they clambered to their feet, using the other as support.

"Forget it!" The Warden cried, grabbing as much as he could carry in his arms. "I'll take this half and you take the other!"

Penna didn't waste the time to nod as she dove into the silvered cavity, scooping all the chunks of complicated metal she could.

The two sprinted toward the stairwell, Penna leading at a pace the battered Warden could barely keep up with. Still, they managed to find it, tucking the precious components as tightly as they could to themselves while trying to avoid being knocked about by the unforgiving tremors.

As they reached the top, they had to pause, rapidly gasping for air that began to taste of unsettled rock and smoke. Their break was a short one, taking off once again to the Warden's room.

Inside they immediately set down the parts they had as he hurriedly sorted them. The chaotic scene from outside his window; full of gunfire, men shouting and running, an endless stream of dismembered limbs flying every which way from both sides of the fight was all he needed to tell him it was time to get the hell out of here.

Safely inside his explosive-proof dome, the Future-Warden watched the havoc displayed before him. He kept a close eye on a monitor that showed the power remaining for his newest creation. It was decreasing faster than he expected. It didn't help the matter that the black-steel Jailbot-X had hardly any time to rest from his debut.

The menacing contraption pushed ahead, dissolving as much of the enemy as he could. He fired, projected and blasted away any and every form of ammunition in his arsenal. True he had made a dent in the Resistance, but he could not keep this up for much longer.

Jared and the others, Alice and even the good Doctor were all playing their part in defending as much of SuperBase as they could. The ground forces were keeping most of the insurgents at bay, however the entire threat was raining down on them maliciously from above. They had twice over the amount of aircrafts in the sky than the other Warden did and they would soon make short work of his defenses.

He kept his eyes on that one monitor, not even for one second allowing himself to panic. He searched his mind for something, anything he could use to give his invention the extra boost needed to save them all. Suddenly it came to him, he still had plenty of excess leftover from Classic Jailbot! Of course, he could use that!

Pulling a lever to lower his seat from the view his dome provided, the other made an immediate haste to the last place he left his old mechanical wonder.

It did not take him long to arrive, even the resulting trembling from those vile scumbags didn't seem to faze him at all.

He stopped suddenly, staring slack-jawed at the gaping door he was very, very certain he had locked. Feeling his fury begin to overcome him he practically leaped inside, growling an incoherent mess of swears and cursing.

"HOWL! Argh! GODDAMMIT!" He slammed his fist against the wall, nearly piercing it with his rage. The cage he left her in swayed lightly, completely empty. His only hope for a power-supply had been ransacked as well.

He knew where they were, and he would make damn well sure they both would realize the severity of their actions.

Only three more pieces remained to attach before the Warden could finish it off with a replacement plug he had managed to fashion from the heart of Jailbot's own power-supply.

He and Penna had worked silently, though quickly. Both seemed to have the understanding that there really wasn't that much to say. He was far too absorbed with making sure every piece to this godforsaken puzzle would be put back in it's exact place. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of what had happened the first time he used this version of the machine.

The image of Jared, his Jared, fading in and out like that only to be swallowed up by the wave of white light frightened him more than what he was able to hide. It had to work this time, it just had to.

With a quick shove the replacement plug was inserted. He was thankful the other's remote still functioned and with it he commanded the oval-shaped door to open.

"Think it'll work?" Penna asked, her tone strangely genuine to him, absent of her normal sarcasm instead portraying actual concern.

"I sure as hell hope so," He responded, annoyed, angry, exhausted and broken.

The two looked at each other for a moment, not entirely aware of how one stood with the other.

The Warden was first to break the silence.

"You could come with me if you want." He shrugged, deciding that he might as well throw that offer out there, guessing that odd expression she wore meant she was expecting to hear it.

She scoffed, shaking her head to burst into an obnoxious snicker.

"I'll be honest with you Warden- and I mean this in the nicest way possible; after this, I really hope to never see you again."

Her laughter faded, and that odd sincerity took over once more.

"At least not from my side of the cell." She added. "Besides, is it really necessary?"

"H-how so?" The Warden replied, eased from offense by her additional comment.

"Do I really need to come with you to save myself? I've only ever begged you for mercy once and I think once is enough for anyone."

"Ah, yes so this is the kind soul who let you out, is it Howl? I expected much better of you Warden... Such a disappointment."

The panting form of the Future-Warden, his face devoid of every emotion other than pure loathing. He swept across the room in a furious blur, taking a murderous hold of his Interrogator's neck.

The younger Warden's only instinct in that instant was to jump into the cabin of his machine, the oval door swooping down to secure him inside. He watched the two struggle for a panicked moment, his nerves burnt out from fatigue.

Dropping her hands from the choking hold around her windpipe, Penna extended her arm as far as she could, reaching with all her strength for that tiny remote. She grinned the widest she ever had at her employer as her twitching fingers wrapped around it.

All it took was one little push of a button and the room filled with blinding, green light and a clash that made the explosions just outside the window seem like mere whispers.

The Warden had disappeared, as did his last image of his Future-self and his employee.


	28. Chapter 28

He kept his eyes as tightly clenched as he possibly could. His blood still flowed freely from his swelling nose and had long since heavily stained his once lovely purple suit.

Perhaps it was pain that wracked his body and clouded his mind so much so that he was unable to notice the tremors had stopped. Or perhaps in the back of his mind he considered this new yet strangely familiar sort of silence to be death itself, having swallowed him up in the form of that harsh, blinding light.

He looked up, his blasted sense of curiosity screaming above all his other senses.

The room displayed before him took several minutes to register as something he recognized. The dully glistening metal arms dangling from the wired ceiling and the formerly sparkling walls now singed in a charred black looked familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. He almost couldn't believe that his surroundings replicated his Time-Machine room so perfectly.

Upon shifting his weight inside the cabin, the Warden's elbow grazed the rounded button that sent the oval doors open in a startling thrust.

He recoiled at the swift motion, receding into the ball he'd become just moments before.

He was waiting for that light to appear, realizing that he was still in one, albeit, broken piece.

The sound of papers shuffling lightly in the distance sent a surge of apprehension through him, though outmatched by his sheer happiness to know who was carrying them.

Stumbling out of the machine, tripping over himself before finally finding himself able to stand upright, the Warden raced out the door. He turned sharply around the corner and launched himself forward to pummel into his tiny assistant.

In the mess of papers that spiraled around the two of them, the Warden was able to find his voice.

"Jared! _Jared! _That is you right? You would not believe what happened to- wait just a minute-"

The Warden released the understandably flustered man and gave him a serious look over. He gently poked his tall forehead with one finger and burst into a maniacal laugh when it did not sink through.

Jared began to inch back a few paces, quite put off at the swollen, more-crimson-than-purple Warden.

"W-what happened to you s-sir?"

The Warden in that moment was about to blurt out his entire story but stopped himself; a though occurred to him.

"Did we go through this before? Because last time you kind of... Died."

"I-I what!"

"It wasn't my fault!" He protested, throwing his hands in the air. "It was _his_ fault! The _other _me! He should have known how temperamental my machines are!"

"I-I don't know what you're t-talking about, sir." Jared shook his head, very confused and afraid at the thought of his own demise.

"Oh yes, that reminds me," The Warden mused, tapping his blood-crusted chin a few times before swinging his other hand, fist-formed, straight into the side of his assistant's skull."

"You, Jared, are an asshole in the future. Stop that."

Jared clutched his head and flinched but quickly shook off the numbness as he tried to make sense of all this.

"I d-don't get it sir you just left only ten minutes ago... Did you find out what you w-wanted to know? But really sir, what happened to you? Y-you look like you're on the losing end of a bar fight."

The Warden gazed down at himself and groaned at what he saw. He was quite a mess and in very much need of a shower, a change of clothes and something that could fix his poor nose. A new pair of glasses would be in store as well; trying to see past the chips and cracks in them, on top of everything else was only adding to his massive headache.

"This is only the half of it! Look at this!"

He rolled up his dirty pant leg to reveal the healed-over stitches, quickly following suit with his arm.

"I wasn't there even an hour and I was pelted with bullets, thrown out of a plane, thrown _back into_the plane, mind-raped and... Yes, to answer your question Jared; yes. I found exactly what was laid out for me. Now, where the hell is Jailbot?"

As the Warden placed his hands on his hips, Jared hastily fiddled about with picking up his papers before leading him to find his creation who had been awaiting him with a bright neon-green expression of welcome.

"Say, Jared," The Warden began after spending several moments telling Jailbot how much he had missed him and that he could never think of replacing him again.

"Y-yes sir?"

"What do you think of the idea of me finding an assistant for you?"

"S-sir?"

"Not _now _of course, heavens no your job around here is far too easy as it is, no. I mean in the future."

"Gee, I don't know sir..."

"Great! I'll mull it over for a while and let you know."

"Whatever you say sir."


End file.
